For more than three decades, the so-called pro-life movement — of which I was once a participant — has claimed to uphold sexual morality and the sanctity of human life, even as it promoted policies which encourage unsafe sex, untimely pregnancy, and abortion among women who are presented with no alternatives.

A new study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that “pro-life” abstinence-only programs — marketed by the religious right, funded by the Bush administration, and imposed upon public schools in conservative school districts across the United States — may achieve the opposite of their intended objectives.

According to The Washington Post, the study focused on “virginity pledges,” a core element of abstinence-only education:

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a “virginity pledge,” but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

“Taking a pledge doesn’t seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior,” said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. “But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking.”

The study is the latest in a series that have raised questions about programs that focus on encouraging abstinence until marriage, including those that specifically ask students to publicly declare their intention to remain virgins. The new analysis, however, goes beyond earlier analyses by focusing on teens who had similar values about sex and other issues before they took a virginity pledge.

Focus on the Family continues to promote unsafe and disease-prone sex — and resulting unwed pregnancy — even as it condemns comprehensive sex-education programs which teach youths how to prevent disease and avoid pregnancies that — as such a young age — often end in abortion.

In a Dec. 16 article, Focus on the Family blames comprehensive sex education for disturbing stats on pregnancy and abortion at a school in urban Alexandria, Virginia — but fails to tell readers that the outcomes of abstinence-only programs are generally just as bad or worse. Focus also falsely insinuates that comprehensive sex ed does not educate teen-agers about abstinence. (Read More)

Stephen Bennett is a Connecticut-based ex-gay activist who counsels no ex-gays and offers no evidence of a past gay life, but who nevertheless requires $180,000 per year to support his antigay political campaigns.

His latest attempt at fund-raising and self-promotion, reported by Good As You, seems to encourage an HIV-positive Christian man to believe that a miracle — and not antiviral medication — has reduced the virus to undetectable levels. Bennett further reinforces the man’s belief that God alone has protected his wife during unsafe sex and protected his newborn son from infection — thus, he believes, excusing himself from taking precautions during future intimate relations.

Instead of cautioning the man to take his medications and use practical measures to protect his wife and future kids, Bennett champions the man’s dangerous delusion of being cured of HIV as “The Reason We Continue to Press on! Praise God!”