A new study bolsters the growing impression that, despite the millions in tax dollars being spent on it, abstinence education has little effect on teenage sexual activity. Ordered by Congress, the study was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, and reviewed four different programs. More than 2,000 young people in two cities and two rural areas took part. The study found that students who attended the programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, and to become sexually active at about the same age. Nor was there any difference between the two groups in the number of sexual partners encountered.

The findings, unveiled in mid-April, echo the results of a survey last fall by the Government Accountability Office. After reviewing programs in 10 states, the GAO found no proof that abstinence education worked. It also noted that the programs at times were conveying medically inaccurate information.

For the sake of both physical health and emotional development, it is desirable that young people delay sexual activity. But they should not be induced to do so through misinformation and scare tactics, or by moralizing that should be the prerogative of parents. It is far better that schools adopt comprehensive sex education, which discusses the benefits of abstinence while providing accurate materials on contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. Such approaches are not only more appropriate; the evidence suggests that they are more effective than programs stressing abstinence only.

Since President Bush took office, the amount of federal money poured into sexual-abstinence programs has surged. The total now stands at more than $800 million. States that want to participate must kick in dollars of their own. But there seems less and less reason for doing so.

Last year, then-Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts leaped noisily aboard the abstinence train, pledging to funnel about $1 million in federal funds to Healthy Futures, a Christian-oriented group that offers abstinence education to dozens of Bay State schools. Governor Patrick, however, commendably wants to end this program. Other states, such as Ohio, have questioned the wisdom of throwing scarce state tax dollars away on these efforts. Ohio pulled out of the federal State Abstinence Education Grant program in March.

In December, Rhode Island said it would allow an abstinence-only program, Heritage of Rhode Island, into the state’s public schools. But the action came only after the state Department of Education had at first advised against using the program, and Heritage made changes to satisfy the department’s concerns. No district is currently using the program.

Congress has a chance soon to review the program, and to decide whether it merits continued funding. This is one clear opportunity for legislators to stop throwing good money after bad in the name of wishful thinking. Congress should pull the plug on the abstinence grant program, and urge schools and community groups, where possible, to offer comprehensive sex education.