“One million American teenagers become pregnant each year,” says Weiss (2006, p.1). One million! This is one of the highest rates in all of the developed countries of the world. The United States, which is the leading country in most everything, is also unfortunately the leading country of unexpected teenage pregnancy rates (Weiss, 2006). Why? What factors could lead to this? One main factor is undoubtedly what the United States has chosen to teach young teenagers…abstinence-only. In theory, abstinence-only sex education programs would be a good idea. Promoting abstinence for teenagers is generally seen as a good thing. However, the abstinence-only programs in the United States are defined by Wikipedia as, “a form of sex education that emphasizes abstinence from sex to the exclusion of all other types of sexual and reproductive health education, particularly regarding birth control and safe sex,” (2007). Seeing as one million American teenage girls are getting pregnant every year, abstinence is clearly not happening. So why not teach teenagers how to have “safe sex”, how to lower the risk of getting pregnant, or how to lower the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD)? Abstinence-only sex education programs are a failure and need to be changed. They do not delay sexual activity of teenagers, they do not lower the risk of STD spread (in fact in some cases they increase the risk), they do not lower the teen pregnancy rate, and they use false information and scare tactics to teach about sex (National Politics, 2005; Weiss, 2006; Willenz, 2005). In actuality, abstinence-only sex education programs are ultimately hurting the U.S.’s teens.
60.9% of teenagers have reported having sex by grade 12; more than half of the United States’ teenagers are NOT practicing abstinence. This illustrates how abstinence-only programs which preach waiting to have sex until marriage are not effective at all in postponing teens from having sex (Weiss, 2006). The fact of the matter is that teenagers are having sex, but do not know some of the risks associated with the act. This is a major reason why there are one million teens getting pregnant every year. With abstinence-only programs teenage students are not taught about using condoms or other contraceptives that would significantly decrease chances of pregnancy. According to Caplan, teenagers who have taken pledges of virginity are more likely than others to not use any contraception when they do start having sex (2005). The reason for this is because most of the teenagers that take these pledges of abstinence are not doing it because it is something they want. Most of them take these pledges because it’s a common routine at the end of the program to ask the teens to take these pledges and the students that don’t take them feel ashamed or embarrassed, so they take them anyway actually not meaning them. And when they do decide to have sex most of them do not use contraceptives; mainly because they’ve never been taught about them. One good thing about teenage pregnancy rate is that research has shown that the teenage pregnancy has gone down in the United States in recent years. Contrary to what some people may want to believe it has nothing to do with abstinence-only education programs. According to Weiss and the research he found by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (which is an institute that has been actively involved in the movement for sexual and reproductive rights), the decline in teen pregnancy is due to the fact that sexually experienced teenagers have begun to use contraception regularly and more efficiently, not because teens are being taught to practice abstinence (2006).
Abstinence-only sex education programs do not delay teen sexual intercourse and do not lower teen pregnancy rates (which happens to be two main goals of teaching abstinence-only). As if that isn’t bad enough they also do not produce any lower rates of sexually transmitted disease spread. In fact in some cases risks are increased (Willenz, 2005). Research has shown that teenagers who have had abstinence-only sex education programs and taken pledges of abstinence are less likely to use condoms or other forms of contraception, which increases the likelihood of contracting and STD (Silverberg, 2007). It seems only logical to conclude that one main reason teenagers do not use contraceptives is because they are not being taught how to. They are not being taught what options are out there for them or how to use them properly. This is incredibly risky because in this case knowledge is not only power, but safety. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spread is extremely high because some abstinence-only sex education programs preach how ineffective condom use is in preventing HIV spread, or they don’t preach about condoms at all. When in actuality, “the male latex condom is the single, most efficient, available technology to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections,” (UNAIDS, UNFPA, &WHO, 2004, p.1). As opposed to abstinence-only programs comprehensive sex education programs can lower STD spread rate among teenagers, specifically HIV transmission. According to Willenz, over 15 years of research has proven that, “comprehensive sexuality education programs for youth that encourage abstinence, promote appropriate condom use, and teach sexual communication skills reduce HIV-risk behavior and also delay the onset of sexual intercourse,” (2005).
Another negative aspect of abstinence-only sex education programs is the fact that they more often than not deliberately teach false information and factual errors. In 2004 California Representative Henry Waxman released a report which revealed that 11 of the 13 most commonly used abstinence-only programs taught factual errors (Silverberg, 2007). Some errors that U.S. teens are being taught are; misrepresented failure rates of contraceptives, altered information about the effectiveness of condoms in reducing HIV transmission, false claims that abortion increases the risk of infertility, premature birth for subsequent pregnancies, and ectopic pregnancy (Wikipedia, 2007). They also teach that people can get pregnant by simply touching the genitalia of a member of the opposite sex (Public Health, 2004). These are only a few of the lies the teenagers are being taught. The abstinence-only sex education programs in the study also taught unproved claims and outright fabrications about gender traits, stereotypes, when life actually begins, and general reproductive health (Public Health, 2004). How are teenagers supposed to learn anything of value if their teachers are teaching them lies? Teenagers should be able to go to class and trust their teachers and be able to believe they are being told the truth. Would we accept it if teachers were teaching children that two plus two was five? I don’t think that would settle well; and abstinence-only should not either.
One strategy for teaching this false information is to scare teenagers into being abstinent. If they believe they will get pregnant by touching another persons genitals then they are more than likely not going to touch another person in that manner; well that’s what abstinence-only supporters would like to believe anyway. Most abstinence-only programs are designed to instill fear in teenagers. The class I took in high school, four years ago, taught that if you have sex before marriage you WILL get a sexually transmitted disease. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. Then they showed us pictures of STDs. Although the pictures could have been used to educate us about different types of STDs and the different ways you can contract them they were not shown to educate us in anyway, they were shown to scare us out of having premarital sex. Period.
The class I was in also used shame to persuade us from having sex. The instructor pushed abstinence on us and only said negative things about teenagers who did engage in sexual activity. At the end of the course we were all told that we could come up and pick up an abstinence pledge card… if we wanted to. Although they gave us the choice and it was not forced on us to take the card nobody stayed in their seat, even if they were sexually active. It would have been embarrassing and shameful not to take a card like everybody else was. The sexually active students (or potentially sexually active students) did not take a card because they believed what they were doing was shameful but the way the class taught sex… it was supposed to be shameful. I am not the only one that has experienced an abstinence-only class that used shame and fear to teach about sex. A report conducted by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SEICUS) concluded that three federally funded abstinence-only programs spread “fear and shame” among teenagers, as well as teach misinformation (National Politics, 2005).
With all of the serious issues regarding abstinence-only sex education programs, they can be classified as a problem in the United States. If abstinence-only sex education programs are the problem, what is the solution? There are many alternatives and they vary greatly. Some people believe that abstinence-only is working fine the way it is, some people think sex education should not even be taught in schools at all, and a growing group of others believe that comprehensive sex education is the way to go. A good comprehensive sex education program is a program that provides accurate information, encourages and supports abstinence, endorses condom use for sexually active teens, promotes fewer sexual partners, teaches about the early identification and treatment of STDs, and educates about the importance of sexual communication. Research done by the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that these types of programs are most effective in keeping sexually active teenagers free of disease (Willenz, 2005). Most people that oppose comprehensive sex education fear that because teenagers will be taught about safe sex the number of sexually active teenagers will sky rocket. The APA research also states that comprehensive sex education programs which teach about condom use and safe sex do not accelerate sexual behavior of teenagers (Willenz, 2005). This information makes that argument unsound. Since abstinence-only sex education programs are not working and are putting teens at risk there needs to be a change. Comprehensive sex education is worth a try.
References
Caplan, A. (2005). Abstinence-only sex education defies common sense. MSNBC. Retrieved on July 7, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9504871/.
National politics & policy: Three federally funded abstinence-only sex education programs instill 'fear' in students, teach false information, SEICUS report says. (2005). The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from http://www.kaisernetwork.org/Daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR ID=32771.
Public health & education federally funded abstinence-only sex education programs present 'false, misleading' information, report says. (2004). The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved July 21, 2007, from http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=27015.
Silverberg, C. (2007). Abstinence-only sex education: Defining and assessing abstinence- only sexual health education. Retrieved July 11, 2007, from http://sexuality.about.com/od/saferse1/a/abstinenceonly.htm.
UNAIDS, UNFPA, &WHO. (2004). Position statement on condoms and HIV prevention. Retrieved July 28, 2007, from http://www.unfpa.org/publications/detail.cfm?ID= 206&filterListType=1.
Weiss, D. (2006). Reducing teen pregnancy. Planned Parenthood. Retrieved July 21, 2007, fromhttp://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy- issues/teen-pregnancy-sex-education/teenage-pregnancy-6240.htm.
Wikipedia. (2007). Abstinence-only sex education. Wikipedia. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstinence_only_sex_education
Willenz, P. (2005). Based on the research, comprehensive sex education is more effective at stopping the spread of HIV infection, says APA committee: Research shows that abstinence-only programs have limited effectiveness and unintended consequences. The American Psychological Association. Retrieved July 21, 2007, from http://www.apa.org/releases/sexeducation.html.
There were not many comments left on this project. The people that peer reviewed it thought that I did a good job and included all the necessary information. I worked toward this paper basically the entire course and I think it turned out very well. I learned a lot throughout the course and I think it shows through in this assignment.
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