There is a group called Club Varsity, which is a collection of speakers, athletes and entertainers, whose stated goal is to influence young people positively. They go around to schools and church groups and preach the message, “Life is not a game, yet many of the same principles can be applied to achieve success. When goals and standards are neither set nor encouraged, it is to be expected that youth will experiment in all types of ‘risky behaviors – pre-marital sex, drugs, alcohol and violence.”
To facilitate this encouragement, you can purchase Abstinence ‘Til Marriage pledge cards on their Web site for just 65 cents each (50 cents if you buy 3000 or more). These cards look just like real ATM cards, except they aren’t used to dispense cash; they are used to dispense promises.
I can’t fathom what goes through the mind of someone who supports abstinence-only education. Either it is ignorance, denial, self-righteousness or a combination of the three. Sex is wonderful, fun, healthy and completely natural. But it also comes with responsibility and can have nasty side effects such as creepy crawly diseases and babies. So let’s clear up any misconceptions and start with ignorance on the subject.
A federal study showed that the majority of people have their first sexual experience in their teens. The National Center for Health Statistics found that about 57 percent of Americans have sex before the age of 18. The kids, they got urges, and they are doing something about ‘em. And studies are showing that kids are experimenting with sex at younger and younger ages. The kids are doing it even when you tell them not to. No one disagrees that abstinence is the only 100 percent sure way not to get a venereal disease or babies, but the reality is that people still have urges that they act on. Sex is the earliest of all traditions, and abstinence-only education is a 100-percent sure way to keep kids from knowing how to use a condom right.
This brings us to denial. No one likes abortions or STDs. People who are pro-choice do not want more abortions. Abstinence-only education is very popular among anti-abortion folks. These “keep it in your pantsers” rally for no sexual education and condoms in schools.
If you really don’t want abortions, then why would you not use proven effective measures to lower them? Having free condoms available to teens coupled with comprehensive sexual education has been shown to lower teen pregnancy and STD rates. If you really want to stop abortions, give eighth graders condoms and show them how to use them.
The reality is, as the Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., said when they released an evaluation of four abstinence programs that these programs don’t have an effect on teen’s sexual behavior. These programs don’t have an impact, and the lack of a positive result translates to a negative one.
So after denial and ignorance, there is nothing left to support these programs other than self-righteousness. The argument for abstinence comes from religion, as does the argument to abstain until marriage.
First, it is wrong to assume that marriage is at all better for every individual. The message of “abstain ’til marriage” is offensive to many hardworking single mothers, implying somehow they are worse parents than those who have a ring on the finger.
We have a separation of church and state in this country for a reason. Abstinence-only education, much like intelligent design, is a thinly veiled religious argument.
If you choose to ignore your prime evolutionary objective, fine. But keep your God out of my bedroom and out of my pants. Federal abstinence-only education needs to end immediately before the next Britney has a baby because Kevin didn’t have a condom.
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