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[Yesterday's] Washington Post features yet another article about the failure of abstinence-only sex education programs, which have been one of the best-funded far right programs under the Bush administration. At last count, the US government has spent more than $1.5 billion on programs that promote "abstinence only until marriage."
A new report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics, and features a study on the "virginity pledge," comparing the health outcomes for young women who pledge to remain virgins until marriage (news flash: they backslide) as opposed to young women who don't pledge. The data indicates that 82 percent of young women taking a pledge of virginity end up breaking the promise, making them no different then their peers for engaging in sexual activity. The study analyzed data collected by the federal government's National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, using detailed information from a representative sample of about 11,000 students in grades seven through 12 in 1995, 1996 and 2001,
The bottom line? "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, However, there were significant differences in risky behavior among the "pledge" takers. The percentage of students who said they used a condom was about 10 points lower for those who had taken the pledge, and they were about six percentage points less likely to use any form of contraception.
At this point, it's hard to imagine how much more data the government and Congress need to collect to come to the conclusion that just telling kids to not have sex isn't working. The more that abstinence-only programs stress the failure rates of condoms and contraception, the less likely young people are to protect themselves against pregnancy and infection. What the vast majority of parents will tell you is that they want comprehensive sex education for teens in school, that includes abstinence but also information about birth control and preventing STDs.
Last spring, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that one in four teenage girls in America has a sexually transmitted infection -- and one in two African-American teen girls. That should be reason enough for Congress to end funding for a program that promotes far right ideology and at the same time gives bad or no information to help teens protect their health.
Any parent with teens (I have two myself) knows that too many young people are seeing teenage sex on every mainstream television show marketed for their age group - just watch Gossip Girl if you think I'm kidding - and yet we are pretending in the classroom that its enough to tell them 'just say no'. We'd all like our teens to delay sexual activity until their ready - and from our point of view that's probably still a long way off! But no one wants their teenager to become pregnant or a parent before they are ready to have and support a family.
We can't expect our teens to make responsible decisions unless we are prepared to give them the guidance and health information that helps them do so. Abstinence-only has been an unmitigated disaster -- our New Year's resolution as a country should be to take teens' health seriously and to invest funding in comprehensive sex education that teaches teens about abstinence as well as contraception, healthy communication, responsible decision making, and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.
18 Comments so far
Show AllJust thinking about sex and George Bush turns me cold. Maybe it would work on adolescent girls too.
the initiate
I don't get it. Why do we call it Sex education. Why not teach RELATIONSHIP EDUCATION. A more psychological approach about relating, dealing with difficult social situations, long term and short term goals. I could go on. But the bottom line is yeah let's get the biological info about safe sex, contraception etc. to the kids but most of them know this stuff and just need it reinforced. The big part of this whole issue is understanding. What do they understand about themselves, their emotional needs and how to meet them. You can't tell me that if you gave them some insight education, that most of them may be able to 1. at least handle the responsibility of sexual activity better and maybe two, delay their choice to start, because they realize their needs better, emotionally, psychologically, and socially, long term. More info, better choices.
These are good points. Respect, responsibility, self-actualization and hope for the future will affect how people deal with sex, health matters and family planning.
Joe
I may be wrong about this, but I'd be willing to bet that if someone traced the route of that $1.5 billion, they'd find some corporation with ties to the Bush administration on the receiving end.
Surely even the wing-nuttiest neo-con must know that when you tell a teenager not to do something, it reinforces their desire to do it.
Nanoo
Willywater, you said it right there. "When you tell a teenager not do to something, it reinforces their desire to do it."
Obama promised to go over the budget line by line and eliminate programs that don't work. Now let's see if he keeps this promise.
This isn't the only issue upon which our government fails to hear us.
A huge supermajority of Americans have wanted our soldiers out of the Middle East for years.
No one's listening.
A majority of Americans wanted an impeachment investigation.
No one is listening.
A majority of Americans want single payer health care.
No one heard us.
A majority of Americans believe the law applies to everyone but no one is listening.
A majority of Americans objected to price gouging by big oil.
No one listened.
A majority of Americans didn't want the Supreme Court to be domininated by Right Wing exremists and corporatists but no one heard us.
A majority of Americans wanted legislators to take their oversight responsibilities seriously yet no one heard us.
A majority of Americans believe that the US Constitution should remain inviolate yet no one listens.
Evidence has been accumulating for more than a decade that ignorance-based sex education is ineffective, but that hasn't kept the religious right from demanding it. The sorts of people who think the universe is 6000 years old, that humans and dinosaurs co-existed and that George W. Bush is a good president are obviously refractory to reason, quite gullible and subject to manipulation. Televangelists and Republican strategists figured that out a long time ago.
Alex
No doubt GWB figured this abstinence only deal out as he went through high school and then when he was forced to interact with fellow cheerleaders in college. It made so much sense to him that when he got religion later on it was the proper solution to all sexual problems and should have a billion or so to help it along. After all, he has been throwing our money at anything and everything for eight years and when that was gone, he used Chinese funds. The strange thing is why so many women voted for someone to take their rights away and dictate how their children should be educated about one of the most important matters in a womans life.
What really creeped me out about the "virginity pledge" was that the young girl makes the pledge to her FATHER! As if he "owns" her virginity!!!!!
Abstinence is an excellent choice for anyone; it sure worked for my sisters and me. However, it's foolish to demand it or think it's the universal cure-all for teen sex and the potential resultant problems.
To have federally funded this was stupid from the idea's inception but I imagine it made some people feel prettttttttttty important, smug, and oh-so-moral.
Why are we as parents leaving it up to the education system to teach our children about sex? Frankly, I don't want the school to teach sex education. It's our job as parents to ensure that our children are equipped with knowledge necessary to make informed choices about their sexuality. I don't care if the school teaches Abstinence only... My child knows better than that because I taught her. It's lazy parenting to rely on the schools. Talk to your kids. Tell them the truth. It's far better than leaving it up to the government.
Because most parents do NOT talk to their kids, and a lot of kids aren't comfortable talking to their parents. Best approach: both school AND parents (and regularly reading Dan Savage's "Savage Love" column)!
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
George Bush is probably gay. When history finally examines this in about 15 years or so, it might come out. Who was the gay prostitute (Jeff Gannon) seeing during his more than 200 visits to the Whitehouse in 2003-2004? This would be an unprecedented number of personal visits even for David Gregory.
This string is getting ugly, so may as well... If one of the Bush twins got preggers, you gotta believe she would have been on a quiet flight to a very private clinic in London ASAP.
If one of them had, do you think we'd know about it?
Alex
Gay or otherwise, neither he nor Congress or for that matter our state and local legislators have any business forcing abstinence-only sex education on us.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
A $1.5 billion unmitigated disaster! Well, we're back to those sensible balance the budget democrats.
Don't let Mr. Obama forget to lift the global gag rule. Enough of neocon mischief, already!
George Wanker Bush has been abstinent for decades and wants to know why everyone else isn't. His Best Friend is not his wife or his dog but a jar of Vaseline.
LOL that's great :-)