Abstinence is the Best Policy
Abstinence is the Best Policy
A May 2007 Zogby Poll determined that parents by a 2-1 margin prefer that their teens be taught abstinence instead of a “safe-sex” comprehensive sex education. Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), commented at the time, “These results confirm broad-based support for abstinence education, including teaching teens about developing healthy relationships and increasing self worth and self control.”
For a decade or more, a policy tug-of-war over the messages of sex education has denied children the truth about sexual education. In the safe-sex message promoted by “sex experts,” children hear about the glitz and glamour of premature sexual activity and learn from sex-education educators who indoctrinate them into the myth of “safe” sexual experimentation. Yet one in four girls now suffers from a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
The official findings of the committee determined that comprehensive sex-education programs “cut risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and lower the chances of getting the AIDS virus and other infections.” The panel found “insufficient evidence” to establish if abstinence-based programs “are effective.” (The Washington Post, November 7, 2009)
Two members of the panel, however, issued a dissenting report, saying, “the study recommendations may mislead policymakers by presenting conclusions that don’t match key study findings.” Panel members Irene Ericksen and Danielle Ruedt questioned methodological issues and unsupported conclusions. Ericksen and Ruedt said conclusions about the effectiveness of comprehensive-based sex education in reducing STDs appeared in only two programs in community health clinics – not schools, and that findings of significant reduction by abstinence programs were discounted, “based on a misplaced deference to certain RCT [randomized control trial] studies that showed no effects, but had important design problems.”
Comprehensive sex education – and the educators who embrace it – is doing a huge injustice to the teens and youth who are buying the false messages that “everyone is doing it,” and the exaggerated claims of condom protection. Many are the heartaches of these disastrous messages. Lives are ruined and scarred not only by contracting disease, but the emotional turmoil of teenage pregnancy and premarital sex. Abstinence outside of marriage is the only foolproof method of avoiding these pitfalls, yet millions of teens fall victim to the false promises of the proponents of sexual freedom.
Posted on November 12, 2009
A May 2007 Zogby Poll determined that parents by a 2-1 margin prefer that their teens be taught abstinence instead of a “safe-sex” comprehensive sex education. Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), commented at the time, “These results confirm broad-based support for abstinence education, including teaching teens about developing healthy relationships and increasing self worth and self control.”
For a decade or more, a policy tug-of-war over the messages of sex education has denied children the truth about sexual education. In the safe-sex message promoted by “sex experts,” children hear about the glitz and glamour of premature sexual activity and learn from sex-education educators who indoctrinate them into the myth of “safe” sexual experimentation. Yet one in four girls now suffers from a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
Miriam Grossman, M.D., a physician who has spent countless hours treating infected girls, cautions, “Sexually transmitted infections are 100% avoidable. Your sexual behavior, including your partner choice, will determine the risk to your health. The following factors place you at high risk for HPV, even with 100% condom use:
- Being a sexually active teen girl, or any male who has sex with other males,
- Initiating sexual behavior at a young age,
- Having multiple partners,
- Having sex with someone who has had multiple partners.” (See “Way to Go, Planned Parenthood.”)
- Being a sexually active teen girl, or any male who has sex with other males,
- Initiating sexual behavior at a young age,
- Having multiple partners,
- Having sex with someone who has had multiple partners.” (See “Way to Go, Planned Parenthood.”)
Yet that is not the message teens hear on the Internet, on television, from their peers, and even from health and sex education classes. Policymakers have waged a war over scarce sex-education dollars, and the Obama administration has removed abstinence funding and replaced it with contraceptive-funding sex education.
Last week, a skewed report from the Centers for Disease Control panned abstinence education and promoted the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education. The Task Force on Community Preventive Services, a 15-member panel that issues health recommendations, reviewed 83 studies of sexual-education programs conducted from 1980 to 2007. Huber of the NAEA told CitizenLink that the panel was heavily stacked in favor of comprehensive sex education proponents. The official findings of the committee determined that comprehensive sex-education programs “cut risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and lower the chances of getting the AIDS virus and other infections.” The panel found “insufficient evidence” to establish if abstinence-based programs “are effective.” (The Washington Post, November 7, 2009)
Two members of the panel, however, issued a dissenting report, saying, “the study recommendations may mislead policymakers by presenting conclusions that don’t match key study findings.” Panel members Irene Ericksen and Danielle Ruedt questioned methodological issues and unsupported conclusions. Ericksen and Ruedt said conclusions about the effectiveness of comprehensive-based sex education in reducing STDs appeared in only two programs in community health clinics – not schools, and that findings of significant reduction by abstinence programs were discounted, “based on a misplaced deference to certain RCT [randomized control trial] studies that showed no effects, but had important design problems.”
Comprehensive sex education – and the educators who embrace it – is doing a huge injustice to the teens and youth who are buying the false messages that “everyone is doing it,” and the exaggerated claims of condom protection. Many are the heartaches of these disastrous messages. Lives are ruined and scarred not only by contracting disease, but the emotional turmoil of teenage pregnancy and premarital sex. Abstinence outside of marriage is the only foolproof method of avoiding these pitfalls, yet millions of teens fall victim to the false promises of the proponents of sexual freedom.
Posted on November 12, 2009
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