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Sex education under president Bush has been the subject of controversy in the US, where abstinence-only programs have largely replaced traditional educational forms. Critics of the shift have claimed that the religious right's 'war on unmarried sex' is dangerous, and spreads misinformation.

Last Friday the US government quietly released their thorough, federal study into the effectiveness of Abstinence-only sex education programs. The study found that abstinence-only education was a complete failure, having zero impact on the rate of abstinence, condom use, and number of sexual partners of US teens (see figure below).

The Huffington Post reports that the program operates largely on fear and disinformation, a hallmark of the Bush administration. Students were being taught "that touching a person's genitals can cause pregnancy. That HIV can be spread through sweat and tears (so that's where Bill Frist got his information). That abortion can cause sterility."

Unfortunately, the US has influenced developing nations to adopt abstinence-only programs, which I wrote about back in 2005. In the US, at worst these programs are a waste of money, but in Uganda their continued use in light of these findings is tantamount to murder. Millions of Africans die each year due to HIV, and these programs along with contraceptive distribution and female education are crucial to bringing down the rate of HIV infection.

To understand the results, compare the heights of the blue bar (those in abstinence-only program), with the white bar next to it (those who were not). As can be seen, there is zero difference between the two groups. Image sourced from amptoons.com.