Abstinence Programs
From
Drudge, comes this lovely report that some abstinence programs may teach things that aren't quite reality based:
Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:
• 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.
One curriculum, called "Me, My World, My Future," teaches that women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.
They looked at the 13 most common programs; 11 "contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins."
Why is this crap publicly funded, again?
Posted by Owlish at December 2, 2004 07:25 AM
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