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NOTE: This week in Washington D.C., review
begins of grant proposals submitted under the federal 2006 Community
Based Abstinence Education program. With the support of Congress
and the President, abstinence funding is restoring physical,
emotional, social and spiritual health to the youth we care about.
This is a perfect time to remind Americans of why funding is needed to
continue abstinence education.
May 8, 2006
First Published - April 2, 2004
Abstinence is an idea as old as the
hills. We know abstinence works. It prevents unwanted pregnancies. We
know you won’t come down with any of the 25 common STDs if you abstain
from sex. So what’s wrong with abstinence?
Everything? That’s right. Some
people are working to convince parents that abstinence education is
unpopular, unrealistic, and unsafe.
Unsafe? That’s right. Some
people claim that abstinence education is a two-minute lecture
delivered by an uptight prude: Don’t do it. Just don’t do it. Say
NO. And don’t ever, ever do it.
What we need, critics of
abstinence cry out, is truth. We need medically accurate information.
We need to talk about sex. Our kids need to know how to stay safe.
They need more information than just saying No. They need the
truth.
Truth? Consider that the
abstinence teacher often spends as many as five to ten hours in one
classroom. What are they talking about? Well, actually, they have
quite a lot to talk about, and it’s just the kind of no-nonsense
medically accurate information that could save a teen from the biggest
mistake of her life.
How about these facts:
Medically accurate information
proves the ineffectiveness of condoms in preventing serious STDs
leading to infertility, lifelong genital herpes, and cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer kills more women each year than AIDS. With teens,
condoms approach a twenty percent failure rate in preventing
pregnancy.
Meanwhile, critics of
abstinence want to take over with their own brand of risky sex
education. Their brand of truth ignores medical realities, suggesting
that teens can flirt with sex and not get burned. What does risky sex
look like? Try these ideas out:
Risky sex educators’ version of
sex education counsels teens to try "outercourse." This highly risky
behavior, using their own definition, can include naked body-to-body
intimacy just short of intercourse.
Risky sex educators put their
version of "abstinence" into a virtual smorgasbord of sexual behaviors
that teens can engage in…when they are ready. In their curriculum,
abstinence is little more than an "option" that teens may abandon…when
they are mature.
Research proves parents are the
most effective educators of sexual values for their children. In spite
of this, risky sex educators use "confidentiality" as a means of
promoting secrecy that distances teens from their parents.
Best of all, risky sex
educators are engaged in an all out attack on the money that supports
abstinence education. They print articles and lobby legislators and
governors. "Stop abstinence education," is their battle cry.
So what kind of money are we
talking about? While risky sex educators are concerned that $120
million is being spent on abstinence programs, it is reported that in
FY 2002, the federal government spent half a billion dollars on teen
sex-ed that ignores the medical realities of condom failures. We are
paying risky sex educators to teach our children such "safe sex"
concepts as outercourse.
What do parents get for their
money? The "statistical results" of thirty years of the condom,
outercourse, and "mature sex" message is evident. Today, one in five
children over the age of 12 tests positive for herpes type 2.
What has happened to choice?
Abstinence is an important option and choice parents deserve. It
reinforces parental values by giving students truly medically
accurate information to help them understand the importance of
remaining sexually abstinent until marriage.
Abstinence education embraces
the same no-nonsense, truth-telling approach we use in teaching young
people about drugs, tobacco and drunk driving
It is a grassroots effort that
has taken hold over the past ten years, fully supported by medical
experts who have witnessed the explosion of the STD epidemic in their
medical practices. During this same period of time, as abstinence
education gains ground, the CDC in an extensive report just released
says teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates dropped from 1990 to
1999.
Abstinence educators know what
our kids need. They talk medically accurate information. They give our
children the information and reasons for saying No to sex. They
know what risk is about, and they are not willing to put one cent into
pretending that "outercourse" is a good idea. And that’s the truth.
Copyright © 2004 Jane Jimenez
February 21, 2005
Sex Without Value
See Archives
for past editorials.
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