Abstaining from good sense

Thinking people have long understood that abstinence-only sex education (and I use the term "education" lightly here) is a farce. Telling teenagers to abstain from sex has never worked. God's own self could come down from the stratosphere and threaten teens with eternal hellfire unless they keep their paws off each other - and huge numbers of them would still do the horizontal mambo. Call it nature, call it the urge to merge, call it whatever you like... but thus has it e'er been, and thus shall it e'er remain. Meanwhile, scientific analysis has found no conclusive evidence that abstinence-only education is effective.

This reality, of course, hasn't deterred the "moralists" in the White House, who could never be accused of letting the facts get in their way. They and their upright, uptight cronies have stormed our schools with their "just say no to sex" blitzkrieg, and have nearly $170 million earmarked in next year's budget for abstinence programs.

A new congressional staff analysis gives a boost to sex-ed programs that offer comprehensive info about everything from abstinence to zygotes. Out of 13 abstinence-only curricula examined, the report concludes that 11 give teenagers misleading or downright false information - including these howlers:

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."
• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
• Women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and as many as 10 percent of them become sterile.

So not only aren't kids getting the full range of information about sex, the information they are getting is ... hmm, what's the word? Oh, yeah: wrong.

The White House says it's trying to prevent abortions and HIV infection. But if that's what it really wanted, it would make sure kids have every available piece of scientific information about safe sex at their disposal. And it also might pay some attention to issues like poverty, self-esteem, and abuse - factors that contribute enormously to unwanted pregnancies and HIV infection.

But to this administration, information is the enemy. And the next generation is going to pay dearly for that willful ignorance.