Abstinence-only forces try to play down latest study

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that not only do teenage abstinence pledges simply not work, but that, when they’re broken, pledging teens are less likely than others to use condoms or other protection against pregnancy, STDs or both.

So, what does the abstinence-only movement do?

First, shoot the messenger:

“It is remarkable that an author who employs rigorous research methodology would then compromise those standards by making wild, ideologically tainted and inaccurate analysis regarding the content of abstinence education programs,” said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association.

Of course, no such analysis was done; the analysis of said research was as rigorous as the methodology. In fact, researcher Janet Rosenbaum of Johns Hopkins got MORE rigorous than previous research studies, comparing pledging and non-pledging teens with similar attitudes toward sex, using about 100 variables:

“Previous studies would compare a mixture of apples and oranges,” Rosenbaum said. “I tried to pull out the apples and compare only the apples to other apples.”

You don’t get much more rigorous in methodology.

As for analysis, it came down to two basic points.
• How often were pledges broken;
• Comparing condom usage rates.

As for the first, the “pledge failure rate” was 82 percent.

Condom use? About 10 percentage points lower in pledgers.

The story notes that hundres of millions of federal dollars in abstinence-only education funding is up for renewal this year. Will Barack Obama listen to the science, as he claims his administration will do, or will he consider this part of his pledge, pun intended, to expand faith-based programs?