“I look forward to explaining to the American people why we made some of the requests that we made in our budget,” Bush said. “I fully understand that sometimes it’s hard to eliminate a program that sounds good. But by getting people to focus on results — I was saying to members of Congress, show us the results as to whether or not this program is working.” (emphasis added)
Abstinence-only programs like those promoted by the Bush administration don’t seem to be working on teenagers in the president’s home state, according to a state-sponsored study by Texas A&M University researchers.
The ongoing study, the first evaluation of the abstinence programs across the state, found that students in almost all high school grades were more sexually active after undergoing abstinence education. (emphasis added)
Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person’s genitals “can result in pregnancy,” a congressional staff analysis has found.
Those and other assertions are examples of the “false, misleading, or distorted information” in the programs’ teaching materials.
But even amid the cutbacks [to the federal budget], some presidential priorities would remain flush. Youth programs advocating sexual abstinence would increase by $39 million, to $206 million.