Las Vegas, a town not normally associated with moral
restraint, was the site last week for the seventh annual National Abstinence
Clearinghouse Conference. The conference, which concluded last Sunday, gathered
around 750 people, the Los Angeles Times reported June 29.
The abstinence movement has grown rapidly in recent years. There are now more
than 1 million teens and college students registered with True Love Waits, one
of several abstinence campaigns, the Times said.
One of the participants, Luis Galdamez, an abstinence educator from California,
said it was important to stress that anyone can practice abstinence until
marriage, even if you're no longer a virgin. "It's your body. It's your choice,"
said Galdamez, who spoke at the event. "You're worth the wait."
Federal government funding for abstinence programs should reach a record high of
about $120 million this year, the Washington Times reported March 24. "This is
as high as it's ever been," said Heritage Foundation analyst Robert Rector. The
goal, he said, remains at least $135 million a year, which would put abstinence
funding on par with spending for contraceptive education.
"Abstinence education is very valuable in promoting a viable alternative to
sexual activity" and can reduce the risks of unplanned pregnancy, sexually
transmitted disease and single parenthood, said U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, a
Pennsylvania Republican.
Outside of the United States there are signs that support for abstinence
programs is growing. The British government had set a target of ensuring that
three-quarters of teen-agers in Northern Ireland still be virgins at age 16, BBC
reported Jan. 23. The goal is included in a strategy document aimed at reducing
teen-age pregnancies and improving sexual health.
The five-year Teen-age Pregnancy and Parenthood Strategy and Action Plan was
published by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. A
department spokesman told BBC News Online: "We have to help teen-agers
understand and avoid the risks of underage, unprotected, uninformed sex."
Meanwhile, in Chile, a group is organizing workshops for teen-agers on matters
involving sexual health, the newspaper El Mercurio reported April 2. The group
Chile United (Fundación Chile Unido) aims to reduce the pregnancy rate among 15-
to 19-year-olds, which has increased in recent years. The program covers a wide
variety of subject matter, from explaining the stages of physical and
psychological development, and strengthening self-esteem, to promoting
abstinence.
Favorable data
A report published in April by Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council
provided a wealth of information on the benefits of abstinence. The study,
"Abstinence Until Marriage: The Best Message for Teens," explained the negative
consequences of precocious sexual activity. Unwed teen mothers are likely to
live in poverty and be dependent on welfare, and only about 50% of them are
likely to finish high school while they are adolescents or young adults.
Additionally, children born to teen mothers are more likely than other children
to have lower grades, to leave high school without graduating, to be abused or
neglected, to have a child as an unmarried teen-ager, and to be delinquent.
The Family Research Council also highlighted the high risk of contracting a
sexually transmitted disease (STD). Each year 3 million teens — 25% of sexually
active teens — are infected with an STD. The report explained that if untreated,
these diseases can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and ectopic
pregnancy. Studies have also found that up to 15% of sexually active teen-age
women are infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV), an incurable virus
present in nearly all cervical cancers.
The study criticized many of the sexual education programs in use among teens.
The majority of schools teach "safe sex" programs that are normally limited to
providing information about sexuality, leaving it up to adolescents to make
their own decisions. Abstinence is downplayed and sexual activity and condom use
are encouraged in these curriculums, noted the Family Research Council. A 2002
report by the Physicians Consortium, which investigated comprehensive sex
programs promoted by the Centers for Disease Control, revealed that abstinence
is barely mentioned.
Evidence that abstinence programs have positive results came in an article
published in April's issue of the journal, Adolescent and Family Health.
The article, "An Analysis of the Causes of Decline in Non-Marital Birth and
Pregnancy Rates for Teens from 1991 to 1995," concluded that increased sexual
abstinence played an "important role" in reducing teen pregnancy rates. The
article also noted that empirical studies are beginning to reveal the
effectiveness of the abstinence approach to sexual education.
And a survey carried out earlier this year showed that parents would like more
attention to abstinence, the New York Times reported Feb. 13. The
survey's results were released by a variety of groups, including the Christian
Coalition of America, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women of America and the
National Abstinence Clearinghouse.
While most parents are in favor of schools teaching their children the basics of
sex education, they disapprove of the more explicit guidance commonly used in
sex-education classes. "When you ask parents in a vague euphemistic way about
comprehensive sex education, they will respond one way," said Peter Brandt,
director of issue response at Focus on the Family, one of the groups that
sponsored the poll. "As we get more specific in terms of what children are
actually taught, though, parents are more opposed."
Status quo programs under fire
Sexual education programs have come under fire in Scotland. The Scottish
Catholic Media Office in a press release on Monday published an open letter to
the Scottish Executive's Sexual Health Strategy Reference Group by Father Joseph
Chambers, a member of the group representing the Catholic Church. Father
Chambers set out his reasons for refusing to sign and endorse the final report
which he claims pursues the "same policies which are patently failing" in the
field of sexual health.
The director of the Catholic Media Office, Peter Kearney, observed: "In the area
of sexual health we see Scotland's abortion figures standing still, no decrease
in teen-age conceptions and a massive increase in sexually transmitted
infections, all of which attest to the total and absolute failure of current
approaches."
In his letter, Father Chambers protested that little attention was paid in the
report to the views of many religious groups on issues such as abortion,
contraception and homosexual activities. "Despite the theological/moral
discussions which did take place within some of the meetings," he added, "there
is no attempt to provide any moral framework in the report which is important to
our society whether or not the population comes from a religious background or
none."
The importance of a moral element in sex education programs was backed up by a
recent study in the United States. According to an April 2 press by the National
Institutes of Health, teens — particularly girls — with strong religious views
are less likely to have sex than are less religious teens. The information came
from a study using information from the National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Health, a comprehensive survey of 90,000 seventh- through
12th-graders.
Scotland's sex education programs had already come under fire in May, from the
Free Church of Scotland. According to a May 22 report in The Scotsman,
the Reverend Chris Smart, convener of the church's youth committee, stated that
there was no mention of marriage in the material. He also criticized the
programs' failure to underline the message of sexual abstinence. It's a long
jump from Las Vegas to Scotland, but the message of abstinence is spreading more
and more.
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