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Sexual Abstinence Programs
Although they may have been a noble and even a moral effort, they haven't worked and they may have even backfired.
After spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting sexual abstinence throughout the United States, the results of studies seem clear.
For example, a recent UNICEF report said that the teenage birthrate in the U.S. is higher than any of the top 28 countries of the world. While U.S. tied Hungary for the most abortions, girls in the U.S. were not the most sexually active. Denmark holds that title. Even so, Denmark's rate of abortions is one half of that of the U.S. and its teen birthrate is one-sixth of ours.
The difference? Effective sex education.
Abstinence pledges are often signed by young people following emotional and sometimes misleading talks on the dangers of sex. Studies show that more than 50% of the young people who sign these pledges break them within a year.
Abstinence only programs do not equip young people to deal with today's social realities. The result is that, unlike other countries, young people in the United States are not being prepared with knowledge about safe sex, resulting in our high rate of pregnancies and STD. (According to USA Today, 50% of young people in the United States will contract a venereal disease before age 25.)
Parents and school boards around the country are getting the message and opting out of abstinence programs, saying the money would be better spent on effective sex education.
Even four years ago before the results of the latest studies were released a survey sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, NPR, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, found that 65 percent of parents of high school students said that federal money, “should be used to fund more comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives.”
[Also see Fog's article, The Price of Prudery.]
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