But if the real point is to "punish" the evil unchaste temptresses with pregnancy, it's working like a charm

I'm sure Bristol Palin could have told them that abstinence pledges don't work (and hey, where IS the blessed event anyway? Wasn't Baby Johnston supposed to have made an appearance around the 19th of December?):

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

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."

This should surprise no one. Abstinence pledges do nothing but perpetuate the "swept away" doctrine of pseudo-acceptable female sexuality -- that if you're prepared to have sex responsibly, you're a slut, but it's "forgivable" if you were simply "swept away" by the moment.

If conservatives want to cut pork programs that don't work, they might start with the $176 bmillion blown on this ridiculous program.

UPDATED to correct the price tag. Still, why spend $176 million for a program that doesn't work?