News The Definition of Insanity
A congressional study has found that abstinence education is “ineffective,” which is a polite way of saying that the federal government is wasting $176 million a year on a program that doesn’t work. Children subjected to abstinence education have the same number of sex partners as children that are not; they also lose their virginity—oh, the horror—at roughly the same age (14.9 years old) as children that are not subjected to abstinence education.
So it doesn’t work, this abstinence education crap. So what’s the remedy? Why, more abstinence education of course!
Bush administration officials cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the study…. Officials said one lesson they learned from the study was that the abstinence message should be reinforced in subsequent years.“This report confirms that these interventions are not like vaccines,” said Harry Wilson, associate commissioner of the Family and Youth Services Bureau at the federal Administration for Children and Families. “You can’t expect one dose in middle school, or a small dose, to be protective all throughout the youth’s high school career.”
Because, hey, if we keep doing the same thing eventually we’ll come up with a different result, right?
Right?
Because we wouldn’t want to take that $176 million and spend it on something useful—something like, say, mental health care for Iraq war vets. Let’s try to see that $176 million through the eyes of Bush administration official: Even if it only saves one precious hymen, it’s money well-spent.