Can You Hear Me Yet?

Today'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.

Comments

[daffey]

You’re right you know. Abstinence education doesn’t work. Not for the reasons we tell ourselves, of course. It doesn’t work because we don’t want it to. You think the economy is bad now, imagine if we pulled in the reigns of using sex to aim at our kids in order to sell our wares. Wow. And of course, how unseemly would it be if our kids acted with more maturity and restraint than we did, or do for that matter? Plus, sex is a great sales pitch for new revolutionary ideas. A great way to get kids on board with the latest agenda is to add the promise of free sex. Yes, we know that it is a statistical fact that no matter how many condoms are used, lives will still be ruined and lost. But we bet the farm on the hope that it will be some poor other kid getting it, and not anyone we know and love. So these stories don’t surprise me at all. I don’t even know where the news is in it. Unless it were to look at the real reasons it doesn’t work, which I’m not going to hold my breath waiting to see. As far as the percentage chance of failure, like I tell my kids, Russian Roulette with a hundred chamber gun and one bullet is still Russian Roulette.

[pdxsteve]

Perhaps I am misreading you're comment, but are you suggesting that the problem of teenage sex comes from media exposure? I am curious as to what the real reasons are for the failure of abstinence only education are...

[Motherunit]

Fifty years ago, tv was squeaky clean. Ads didn't bombard kids with sexual images. It was a real stigma to get pregnant before you were married. Girls who "did it" got a "reputation." Guess what - teenagers still had sex, still got pregnant and spread STDs. Biology is much more powerful than the media.

[blooddoc]

What right-wing ideologues don't understand (or can't come to grips with) is the power of sexual attraction. This has evolved over eons with the prime goal of reproducing the species, and it doesn't (or shouldn't) take a biologist to figure out that the more pleasurable reproducing is, the more likely it is to happen. That's why lower animals have battles to the death in order to perform the sex act. It explains why males of some insect and spider species pursue sex even though it means they will be eaten by the female afterward. There is no question that abstinence is the surest way to prevent pregnancy, but teens should be taught how to protect themselves - if you give a good kid the basic information they will usually make the right choices.

[soburntout]

just say no didn't work for drugs either oh just once i would like to see an intellegent policy without ideology stuck to it

[WeAreTheBorg]

Ideology or religious belief means never having to admit you are wrong.

[jhamm1]

Amen. (no pun intended)

[onceler]

very good points all around, can't wait for the Extreme Silliness of the Bush administration and their fairy-tale approach to health is over and done and buried.

just FYI, its 'Gossip Girl', not 'Gossip Girls'.

[nee]

You could say the same about planned parenthood. Teens who have heard all that planned parenthood has to offer are still having sex, abortions, and children. So now what?

[kdogg]

At least planned parenthood is offering education and options to kids. Abstinence only is just that, only one option with no education. Planned Parenthood is not perfect but its far better then the alternative.

[daffey]

Abstinence works 100% of the time. All other forms are a version of Russian Roulette. A version, sometimes I'm afraid to admit, we are willing to play as long as the statistics are made up of other people's kids.

[nee]

So you are saying it is okay for kids to have sex, abortions, and children out of wedlock as long as they were educated with other options? LOL! Planned Parenthood is worse than the alternative - at least with abstinence (if you follow it) you won't get STDs. With Planned Parenthood you just lessen the chances of getting STDs.

[ndp4949]

It really comes down to a complete denial of how things work by many religious people who would rather only preach abstinence and think their hands are washed from any responsibility when their kids have sex any way. Its more a function of parents not being involved in their child's lives. I mean come on, children while naive, are not stupid enough to not know about condoms and STDs. Take an active role in your children's lives and maybe you won't be dumbfounded when they get pregnant or maybe even prevent it.

I agree teaching these things early will help them be more aware but its up to parents to enforce it. Its more about kids being kids. They know about STDs and pregnancy they just to immature to care.

[Johnagain]

"I mean come on, children while naive, are not stupid enough to not know about condoms and STDs."

I think you overestimate the intelligence of some of the children of religious people. There are in fact girls getting pregnant who have not figured out how it happened, as shocking as this is to imagine. It all comes down to education and like you say, parents truly giving a d@mn what happens to their kids.

[ndp4949]

That is shocking. However, my point was mainly that we have more problems with bad parents than anything else. I sure as hell wouldn't be ready to take care of another human being, and I consider myself pretty intelligent and put together. I'd rather we spend money on teaching parents how to be parents in addition to educating kids.

[Samson1]

I definitely agree, but the proponents of abstinence education do not live or believe in a reality based world. They do not believe in science or the scientific method for the most part so studies have no meaning for them. They believe because they WANT to believe. How do you change that?

[Simone]

Thank you, Cecile, for all the good work Planned Parenthood does. I wish you could run HHS.

[PATina]

I agree. I teach my daughter about abstinence... but I also teach her about condoms and STDs. I want her to have as much information that is available BEFORE she decides to have sex (which I pray is many, many years away).