National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Statement on Abstinence-Only Program Evaluation.

Bill Albert
202-478-8510

4/13/2007

(Washington, DC) - In response to a new evaluation of abstinence-only programs released today
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen
Pregnancy released the following statement from Executive Director Sarah Brown:

“The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has long cautioned that the jury is out on
the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs. The jury has now returned with a verdict on the
effectiveness of four carefully selected, well-evaluated abstinence-only programs and the news is
not good.

The careful evaluation of the abstinence-only programs conducted by Mathematica Policy
Research, Inc. shows that youth enrolled in the abstinence-only programs were no more likely
than those not in the programs to delay sexual initiation, have fewer sexual partners, or abstain
from sex entirely.

Even so, it is important to note that there is a profound difference between abstinence as a
message and abstinence-only interventions. The American public—both adults and teens—
remain deeply committed to encouraging teens to delay sexual activity and to providing young
people with information about contraception. The vast majority of the public does not see
abstinence and contraception as an either/or proposition—they want teens to be informed of
both. A recent nationally-representative survey conducted for the National Campaign shows that
nine in ten adults and teens agree that young people should get a strong message that they should
not have sex until they are at least of our high school and the clear majority of adults (73%) and
teens (56%) wish teens were getting more information about abstinence and contraception rather
than either/or (see With One Voice 2007, www.teenpregnancy.org).

Although this new evaluation report shows that the four programs studied were not able to delay
sexual activity among the young people enrolled, there are a number of interventions that have
been carefully assessed and shown to do so. These programs discuss both abstinence and
contraception. Some of these programs also improved contraceptive use and/or prevented teen
pregnancy.

Having been immersed in this field and all the reports and programs over many years, the main
Campaign message is this: we need better programs and interventions that can lead to clear
delays in sexual activity among young people and to better contraceptive use among those who
are sexually active. Although there has been a 14% decline between 1991 and 2005 in the
proportion of high school students who have had sexual intercourse (CDC Youth Risk Behavior
Survey), and the teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined by one-third since the early 1990s,
the United States still has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world, and 3 in
10 teen girls get pregnant at least once before their 20th birthday. And there is some evidence to
suggest that the remarkable progress the nation has made in this area is slowing. All such data
and trends suggest that if the nation is to make further progress in delaying sexual activity and
preventing early pregnancy and parenthood, our collective efforts will need to be more creative,
more intense, and more targeted. We applaud this carefully conducted evaluation of selected
abstinence programs and encourage researchers, policymakers and others to continue to push
hard for research-based solutions to preventing early pregnancy and parenthood. Today’s report
should be seen as a beginning, rather than an end.”

About the National Campaign. Founded in 1996, the National Campaign is a private, nonprofit
organization with the goal of reducing the teen pregnancy rate by one-third between 2006 and
2015.