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Let’s talk about sex….education
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Abstinence education alone cannot prevent pregnancy and disease
BY RACHEL OLSON
Guest Opinion
I want our youth to make responsible and healthy decisions. I want the rates of teen pregnancy, disease, and abortion to decline. The intentions of those who support abstinence-only programs are probably quite similar to mine. I have great respect and support for teens and young adults that choose to remain abstinent.
However, we cannot assume that abstinence is going to be practiced by everyone. Abstinence should be taught and encouraged, especially within the family. I do not, however, support abstinence-only sexuality education. I support comprehensive sex-ed programs that include abstinence, birth control, disease, self-esteem, and relationships together in an open and honest dialogue.
Our youth must, in addition to abstinence education, be provided with other information on safer-sex practices in order to reduce risk, remain healthy, and to avoid exploitive relationships. Abstinence is only 100 percent effective if it is committed to 100 percent.
Abstinence-only sexuality education has been proven ineffective, yet our federal government continues to funnel money into programs that do not address the complex needs of our specific communities. Every reputable sexuality education and health organization in the U.S., including the American Medical Association, has denounced abstinence-only sexuality education because proven risk-reduction information is not addressed.
A vast majority of American parents support an “abstinence-plus approach”. This approach stresses abstinence as the first and best option for individuals, but also advocates giving young people contraceptive information. Stressing abstinence while also providing information about disease and pregnancy prevention is not viewed as a “mixed message” (as many abstinence-only programs claim). Seven in 10 adults and 8 in 10 teens view such a message as “clear and specific.”
In the March 18th, 2005 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, Yale & Columbia University researchers reported what Planned Parenthood has known to be true for years. Their research indicates that comprehensive sex-ed works to “help young people gain the information they need to protect themselves, and others”, while abstinence-only programs and virginity pledges cannot.
There is no evidence that participants of abstinence-only programs abstain from intercourse longer than others. If they do abstain, it is very short term. When they do become sexually active, however, they often fail to use condoms or other birth control. Abstinence-only sex-ed addresses only the failure rates of contraceptive methods, including condoms, if they are mentioned at all. This gives a false impression that “condoms really don’t work, so why bother to use them”, when sexually active.
In abstinence-only curriculums, words equated with sexual activity are: low self-esteem, guilt, fear, ruined relationships, broken emotions, trashed reputation, and suicide. This approach seems to be based on an inherent distrust of youth; that we must frighten them to get them to act responsibly.
Do we have so little faith in the youth of today that we see them as senseless and incognizant? Fortunately, through my work at Planned Parenthood, I have experienced the opposite. Teens are smart, resourceful, and—despite what most parents think—they want to hear from their parents on topics of sex, love, values, and relationships, even if they do not always act like it.
They are the ones who have to deal with the consequences of their actions and they deserve complete, unbiased information so they can make wise decisions, whether their decisions include abstinence or not.
Rachel Olson is the Director of Education at Planned Parenthood of Idaho
Only abstinence education can prevent pregnancy and disease
BY JONATHAN SAWMILLER
Opinion Writer
When I watched the popular teen movie “Mean Girls” a while back, I realized I missed out on of the most amusing high school experiences.
I roared with laughter as the philandering coach blundered through sex education. One memorable quote still sticks with me. “If you have sex, you will get chlamydia, and if you get chlamydia, you will die.”
I was bemoaning the misfortune of not having had the chance to laugh my way through sex ed, until my girlfriend assured me that I hadn’t missed much.
Apparently, her sex ed class was a boring discourse on human biology, separated by gender, with no hilarity whatsoever.
My curiosity aroused, I began to ask some of my fellow Boise State students about their experiences with sex ed.
One young man told me that he never took sex ed, because Blackfoot High School didn’t offer the course.
Another explained that his sex ed class was a series of videos with graphic images of sexually transmitted diseases, and a warning that abstinence was the only sure way to avoid STDs.
None of the students with whom I spoke had been through a sex ed class that advocated using birth control or condoms as a way to safely become sexually active.
If Planned Parenthood of Idaho has their way, this would all change.
According to the liberal propaganda put out by special interest groups like PPI, students who don’t undergo a “comprehensive” sexual education class that encourages sexual behavior will become “fearful of their own sexuality,” infected with STDs, and most likely engage in sexual behavior at an early age.
Just the opposite was true for the BSU students with whom I spoke, and scientific studies have also proven this across the nation.
In a June 2005 study, published by the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Kirk A. Johnson found that individuals who took a virginity or abstinence pledge as part of an abstinence only sex education course were 25 percent less likely to be infected with STDs than those who didn’t participate in an abstinence only program.
Some leftist groups like PPI actively encourage and promote teenagers having sex as “normal, healthy, and positive.”
They teach the responsibility of having sex can be avoided by the use of birth control.
Some teen-agers will have sex anyway; their argument goes, so why try to stop them? Why not encourage them to just go ahead and do it, with fewer consequences?
It’s the same old liberal argument. Why try to stop junkies from shooting up drugs, or alcoholics from drinking and driving?
Let’s just throw our hands in the air and encourage self-destructive behavior.
Here, have a condom and go have fun.
Since PPI has enlightened you, you don’t need to worry about the consequences of your actions.
Never mind that condoms have a 15 – 21 percent annual failure rate for preventing pregnancy.
Sex is normal and healthy for teenagers, so it’s cool if you’re a parent at 14.
STDs? Don’t worry about them, just have sex anyway.
Condoms are ineffective against many STDs, so you might wind up infertile, covered in sores, or maybe dead, but what’s that compared to 15 minutes of fun in the backseat of your parents’ car?
Thank God we have Planned Parenthood of Idaho to deliver this liberating, progressive message to Idaho’s youth, because if they weren’t on the case, someone might actually try to stop teen pregnancy and STDs by encouraging abstinence and responsibility.