These findings were strongly refuted by the consortium of physicians. They say there's no conclusive evidence that abstinence education works. Many abstinence-based programs are done on a community basis by people who have developed their own programs. The cornerstone of their 'safe sex' teaching is condom use, and I suppose if you were looking from the perspective of the scientific world of the 1960s, when the only two major sexually transmitted diseases were gonorrhea and syphilis, there may be some validity to the fact that condoms decrease transmission of those two. But after so much sexual mixing as a result of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, we have seen diseases which were relatively unknown become very prevalent, such as herpes and human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer.
Condoms do nothing to prevent their transmission to any significant degree.
But if you examine their statement, what they're basically saying is they have no conclusive evidence that either one is the most effective route to go. If they say something shows promise that means they don't have the evidence to say it works, otherwise they'd say it did. Dr. David Satcher, surgeon general of the United States, praised the AMA report and asked that the AMA extend sexual education programs among minority youth programs.