Washington-The day of reckoning is only getting closer for the Bush administration and therefore many issues are closing in on them. The most recent, is the one cited by the American Civil Liberties Union; they have asked for a review of the information provided by the federally sponsored ‘Abstinence Only Sex Education’ programme.
The ACLU put forward this request by way of a lengthy document compiled by Dr. John Santelli, a pediatrician at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. According to Santelli, the material is flawed in more ways than one.The information provided in the ‘sex education’ programme is far removed from the truth. Condoms have been labeled an ineffective way of avoiding pregnancy. The same has been said about the protective function of the condom for HIV infection. The information in the program claims the failure of the condom to avoid pregnancy in one among six cases. Further, condom simply failed to protect against HIV in one-third of the cases, the report holds. Condoms are purported to have leaked or ruptured 15% of the time.
LeAnna Benn, national director of Teen-Aid Inc., completely disagreed with Santelli’s reports. According to Ava Barbour, a staff attorney with the ACLU, the HHS has been reminded many times, but to no avail.
The least that Sex education programmes could do is to provide accurate information. In that respect, the Bush administration has to act fast to set the record straight.
Source-Medindia
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