Bearman Bruckner, author of two articles, one in the Journal of Sociology and another in the Journal of Adolescent health, talk about sexual relations in teens and young adults, while the Columbia University researcher discusses how ineffective abstinence and the purity pledge really is. He found that 88% of pledge-takers in his study had initiated sex prior to marriage though some delayed sex for a while, they were still found to have broken the pledge. 1 Rates of STIs and STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) among pledge-takers and non-pledgers were similar. More surprising was the fact that pledge-takers were less likely to seek STI testing and less likely to use contraception when they eventually did have sex. So really Abstinence only programs aren't effective at all according to Bruckner. Abstinence only programs are only effective for delaying the inevitable.
In 2004 a Special Investigations Division, sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives, (Committe on Government Reform: The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs), analyzed federally funded abstinence-only curriculum. This committee found that over 80%, is basically all of the information most students retain from the program. This type of curriculum was supported by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services which ended up being false, misleading, or contained distorted information about reproductive health. 1 Specifically, they conveyed:
- "False information about the effectiveness of contraceptives
- False information about the risks of abortion
- Religious beliefs as scientific fact
- Stereotypes about boys and girls as scientific fact; and
- Medical and scientific errors of fact." 1
This means that our tax dollars and the governments money has gone into programs that teach our students false information and advocate for religious beliefs into a state run insitution. When our students are supposed to be well informed and given the best knowledge available, our government denies them and supplies them with falsehood. A public opinion research program found that "89% believed that it is important for young people to have information about contraception and prevention of STIs and that sex education should focus on how to avoid unintended pregnancy and STIs, including HIV." 1 Only about 15% of American parents wanted an abstinence only program when asked.
The times have changed. No longer are we back in the days when life use to follow a certain path of our birth, then school, job, marriage, kids, death. We now change things up a bit, with the birth of us, then school, kids, job, marriage, death. However we choose or cut out parts of the follow it doesn't really matter. There is no set rules, maybe societies want social norms of the surrounding population to seems like they have faultered from that "nuclear" family.
According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, advocated by the Center for Chronic Disease prevention and Health Promotion, 46% of girls in high school have had sex, 50% of boys in high school have had some kind of sexual encounter. They even report that 11% of those girls and 18% of those guys who have already have had sex have had 4 or more sexual partners. And about 86% of them didn't use a condom in there last sexual encoutner. Reread those numbers....they are INSANE!!!
In 2007, 4% of girls and 10% of boys had sex before they were 13. Think about about for a moment, 14% of teenagers in 2007 had sex when they were children, not even considered teenagers. So out of that 14% some will go into programs that focus on abstinence, where they can't even take the purity pledge anymore because of their decisions. Instead of putting emotional stress on those individuals why not help them? Teach them the proper ways to protect themselves if they are so inclined to have sex. I am sure at 12 or 13 they barely new what sex was. But educating our young population about sex, with an emphasis on abstinence, will help more than "just saying No."
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