Faith Based Misinformation
The Washington Post has an article about misinformation spready by federally funded sex abstinance programs:

In providing nearly $170 million next year to fund groups that teach abstinence only, the Bush administration, with backing from the Republican Congress, is investing heavily in a just-say-no strategy for teenagers and sex. But youngsters taking the courses frequently receive medically inaccurate or misleading information, often in direct contradiction to the findings of government scientists, said the report, by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), a critic of the administration who has long argued for comprehensive sex education.

[...]

The report concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but the 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins. In some cases, Waxman said in an interview, the factual issues were limited to occasional misinterpretations of publicly available data; in others, the materials pervasively presented subjective opinions as scientific fact.

Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."
  
• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
  
• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
  

One curriculum, called "Me, My World, My Future," teaches that women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.

[...]

Nonpartisan researchers have been unable to document measurable benefits of the abstinence-only model. Columbia University researchers found that although teenagers who take "virginity pledges" may wait longer to initiate sexual activity, 88 percent eventually have premarital sex.

Bill Smith, vice president of public policy at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a comprehensive sex education group that also receives federal funding, said the Waxman report underscored the need for closer monitoring of what he called the "shame-based, fear-based, medically inaccurate messages" being disseminated with tax money. He said the danger of abstinence education lies in the omission of useful medical information.

Some course materials cited in Waxman's report present as scientific fact notions about a man's need for "admiration" and "sexual fulfillment" compared with a woman's need for "financial support." One book in the "Choosing Best" series tells the story of a knight who married a village maiden instead of the princess because the princess offered so many tips on slaying the local dragon. "Moral of the story," notes the popular text: "Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess."

How well is abstinance-only education working? Let's check out Texas, where George Bush first put this to the test:

Kate is now a statistic - a pregnant teenager. In Dimmitt, 80 miles north of Lubbock, she is one of 12 pregnant girls at a school of 330 students, a Dimmitt school official said. Now she's living in Lubbock, which doesn't fare much better. According to local lore, this dusty town eight hours from Austin boasts more churches per capita than any other in the nation. But it also boasts some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state, with 36.4 percent in 2002, compared to the statewide rate of 28.5 percent, according to the Texas Department of Health's Vital Statistics from 2002. Lubbock County also has one of the highest STD numbers in the state, with 1,725 STD cases in 2003. Texas has the fifth-highest rate in the nation for teen pregnancy for girls aged 15 to 17.

Yet, since 1995, Texas has taught its teens that the only safe sex is no sex when then-Gov. George W. Bush signed into law a bill that made Texas the third state requiring abstinence-only sex education. Now, of course, Bush as president has taken that philosophy nationwide, putting millions of dollars into abstinence-only programs. And likewise, Texas' State Board of Education followed suit in touting abstinence when it approved four health textbooks early November. Only one of these textbooks mentions contraceptives, and then only once.

How about a full-blown, rational attempt at sex education? Let's check out Canada:

A recent report on pregnancy rates among Canadian women shows increasing numbers of women are postponing having children until their 30s while pregnancy rates among teens and women in their 20s have been declining. Statistics Canada has issued reports documenting that the percentage of teenage pregnancies dropped from 14% in 1974 to 8% in 2001. During this same period pregnancy rates among women in their 30s more than doubled from 20% in 1974 to 43% in 2001 As reported by the Toronto Globe and Mail, an even larger increase occurred in women aged 35 to 39.

Annette Johns, executive director of Planned Parenthood for Newfoundland and Labrador sited the benefits of access to sexual health information in her reaction to the decrease in the rate of pregnancy among teens. Johns commented that the decrease cannot be attributed to any increase in the abortion rate, but only to an actual decrease in the incidence of teen pregnancy. Johns told the London Free Press, “If you provide young people with sexual health information and educate them, they are able to make informed decisions.”