President Bush and his advisors have done yet another disservice to the American people--especially American youth--with their purported faith-based initiatives. At one level such programs have funneled money away from research into proselytizing.
At another level, the subject of this letter, they ignore reality. In particular modern cognitive research shows that one of the last parts of the brain to develop is that part of the frontal cortex that is the source of judgement, the ability to distinguish what's desired at the moment from possible and even likely consequences.
This is nowhere more true than in the arena of human sexuality. Hormone levels are never at such high levels as they are in the years following puberty, i.e., the teen years. This, accompanied by brains not yet fully formed, is a recipe for disaster.
Why don't "abstinence-only" programs work? One reason is because, at a time when hormonal levels are running on over-drive in teens whose frontal cortexes have not yet fully formed, we deny them both the facts and the means to protect themselves.
Knowledge of human sexuality will not alter the equation of raging hormones and not yet fully developed brains. Nor will access to means of self-protection, e.g., condoms. However, it is self-evident that such knowledge and such access can do no harm. In contrast, the harm done by "abstinence-only" programs is one revealed in the repeated tragedies of young lives cut short by HIV--one of the leading causes of death amongst youth--and blighted by other non-fatal sexually transmitted diseases, as well as unwanted children.
As you work over the next weeks and months to get our country's economy back on track and reverse course on the outrageous failures of the last eight years, I hope you will support our teens with the facts--and the means-- they need to protect themselves.