Abstinence Courses Faulted as Misleading

Many American youths participating in federally funded, abstinence-only programs have been taught 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, said the analysis released by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Several million children ages 9 to 18 have participated in the more than 100 federal abstinence programs.