Bush's budget recommends $270 million for programs that try to dissuade teenagers from having sex, double the amount spent last year. Much of that money would be given in grants to Christian organizations such as Youth for Christ and to anti-abortion groups operating so-called crisis pregnancy centers

Some abstinence-only programs, like more comprehensive sex education, have been shown to delay the age at which teenagers first have sex -- which almost everyone agrees is a good thing. Yet studies also show that when teenagers from abstinence-only programs do have sex, they're less likely than others to use protection. Perhaps that's why the teen pregnancy rate in Texas remains one of the highest in the country, despite the abstinence-only policies Bush pushed as governor.

These programs are prohibited from providing information about condoms or contraception for the prevention of pregnancy or disease." That's true even if a teenager in the program tells the instructor that he or she is already having unprotected sex.

The Centers for Disease Control used to agree. "Until recently, a CDC initiative called 'Programs That Work' identified sex-education programs that have been found to be effective in scientific studies and provided this information through its web site to interested communities," says a report on the Web site of U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "In 2002, all five 'Programs That Work' provided comprehensive sex education to teenagers, and none were 'abstinence-only.' In the last year, and without scientific justification, CDC has ended this initiative and erased information about these proven sex education programs from its web site."

"In October 2002, CDC replaced a comprehensive online fact sheet about condoms with one lacking crucial information on condom use and efficacy," says Waxman's site. "Like the CDC, the State Department's Agency for International Development (USAID) has censored its Web site to remove information on the effectiveness of condoms."

Meanwhile, the U.S. is trying to force its anti-condom agenda on the rest of the world. As Politics & Science reported, in December 2002, "the U.S. delegation at the Asian and Pacific Population Conference sponsored by the United Nations attempted to delete endorsement of 'consistent condom use' as a means of preventing HIV infection. U.S. delegates took this position on the grounds that recommending condom use would promote underage sex."