Omar Mendoza
Ms. Kelly Lepsig
English IV
31 March 2015
Why I Believe That Abstinence Programs Don 't Work How can people be abstinent if they experience or see sexual content very day?
Abstinence programs don 't work because we see sexual content on tv every day. Sex Ed classes don’t teach things in the right way. Also people miss use birth control, abortion because Sex Ed makes it seem what its not. I believe that abstinence programs don 't work.
Some people argue that abstinence programs do work because “centers for disease control and prevention (cdc) press release.national representative cdc study finds 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sextual transmitided disease”( stats andfacts). This shows that many tenagers dont have sexual
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Also the state of colorado has found another alternative to bring down birth rates. “4% drop in teen births in colorado over the last five years. the state handed out 30,000 free or low cost contraceptives”(Birth Control Not Abstinence). People argue that even though its not abstinence that it has in effect in birth rates across the state of colorado. “aggressive state and national programs supplying teens with long term contraceptives has put a big dent in the teen birth rates”(Birth Control Not abstinence). Some don 't mind that contraceptives are given out to student without their parents knowing. As long as it bring down birth rates and pregnancies.
Some people believe that abstinence programs are working but they are wrong. Sex ed abstinence programs don 't teach things the right way. “HIV can spread via sweat and tears.women who have an abortion are more prone to suicide and as many as 10% of women have abortions become sterile”(The Truth About Abstinence). In sex ed i was taught that a piece of rubber could protect you from HIV. Well i guess they were wrong and so many teens think that nothing will happen if they use a condom. Also they want girls to stay abstinent and then they come out with birth control pills and abortions. Know teens will be more likely to not be abstinent because if something goes wrong they can go get an abortion. If they didn 't want nothing to happen the girl could just take a pill which doesn 't seem
People such as President George W. Bush has made no secret of his view that sex education should teach teenagers "abstinence only" rather than including information on other ways to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. Unfortunately, despite spending more than $10 million on abstinence-only programs in Texas alone, this strategy has not been shown to be effective at curbing teen pregnancies or halting the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. (2010 Union of Concerned Scientists) In addition, the Bush administration distorted science-based performance measures to test whether abstinence-only programs were proving effective, such as charting the birth rate of female program participants. In place of such established measures, the Bush administration required the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to track only participants' program attendance and attitudes, measures designed to obscure the lack of efficacy of abstinence-only programs. (Federal Register 65:69562-65, November 17, 2000). This
Additional research has explored the effects of abstinence based programs on actual behavior outcomes. Kohler, Manhart, and Lafferty (2008) compared the effects of abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education programs, operationalizing effectiveness in terms of initiation of sexual activity and teen pregnancy rates. They found that teenagers who received comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence-only or no education were significantly less likely to report a teenage pregnancy. In addition, their conclusions mirrored Sather and Kelly (2002), finding that abstinence-based programs did not reduce the likelihood of engaging in sexual activity. Kohler, Manhart, and Lafferty (2008) actually concluded that comprehensive sex education was more likely than abstinence based to reduce the percentage engaging in sexual activity. Overall, the researchers showed that comprehensive sex education, including but not limited to contraception, did not increase the prevalence of sexual activity in teenagers or the risk of teen pregnancy, while also showing the that abstinence only education produced a higher likelihood of pregnancy.
According to advocatesforyouth.org, “abstinence only education teaches students to abstain from sex prior to marriage.” These program has been proven to be ineffective. Abstinence only education is ineffective because it is not conducive in reducing teen pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted diseases rates. Abstinence only programs are less likely to teach students about birth control and contraception and how to access it. These programs has not been shown to reduce teen sexual activity.
In an article about abstinence, it says “Fellow advocate Dr. Albert Danishanko urged the district to apply for grant money to teach abstinence. The center is the headquarters for the Pennsylvanians for Human Life Wyoming Valley Chapter and advocates abstinence as a way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and subsequent abortions. Pregnant women are urged to have their babies instead of choosing abortion” (Adams). Abstinence is a way to avoid becoming pregnant so that means there will be less abortions, if teens stay abstinent. This is the least affective way of birth control and school districts that teach abstinence only have higher teen pregnancy
These programs focus on teaching teens and youth to just say no. These programs are so focused on keeping teens ignorant about sex and conforming to standards of heteronormativity, that according to Planned Parenthood, they purposely exclude information on “…birth control, safer sex and sex orientation” (“Planned Parenthood: Implementing Sex Education”, n.d.). As Planned Parenthood also states, although abstinence is the only method that fully prevents pregnancy and STDs (“Planned Parenthood: What is Abstinence?”, n.d.), the belief that abstinence education is sufficient in guiding decisions on sexual behavior is erroneous. According to the Texas Freedom Network, sex education in the state of Texas can be broken up into two subcategories of abstinence education; “Abstinence-only 74.6% (Abstinence Programs: 27.2%, Textbook only: 47.4%), Abstinence Plus: 25.4% (Worth the Wait 19.5%, Big Decision: 4.1%, Other Programs: 1.8%)” (TFN, 2011). The lack of informed discussion prevents young women from having the knowledge to make informed decisions about their sexual health, and thus limits their reproductive
In 2005, nearly half of all high school students have had sexual intercourse. Plainly stating that abstinence programs do not work (USA Today). Abstinence programs were beneficial many years ago, but since they are ineffective in delaying teen pregnancy, then teen pregnancy rate has increased. Abstinence programs teach the “no sex until marriage” clause, but they don’t teach teens about birth control and the consequences of having sex at before they’ve matured. Although many studies argue that abstinence programs are educational and beneficial, other studies will show that they don’t delay teen sex, they don’t prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and are a waste of taxpayers’
Abstinence teaching only is not effective when trying to prevent STIs in teenagers. According to "Life123" (2012), ”While abstinence-only education programs have the support of many major national religious groups, a comprehensive sex education program in schools has the backing of a wide range of educational and medical organizations. Most proponents of comprehensive sex education argue that teens should be encouraged to abstain, but should also get information about contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases, and how to prevent HIV” (Family).
Proponents for abstinence-only education believe that the abstinence-only message has contributed to the decline of adolescent sexual activity as well as negative related outcomes. In the 1990s there was a decrease in adolescent pregnancy, birth and abortion rates. These proponents attribute these declining statistics to the abstinence-only message and claim that the declines cannot be accredited to increased
The researchers used a categorization for the U.S. states of “three levels of the only-abstinence program” (Stanger-Hall & Hall 2011), where the level three is the firmly use of this educational program whereas the level zero is where this program is barely used in high schools.
This is a fact confirmed by the CDC (“About Teen Pregnancy”). It is also a fact that teen pregnancy continues to decline every year at an incredible rate. This could definitely be due to sex education and the availability of birth control without parental consent. Janice Shaw Crouse wrote about a D.C. area study which shows that abstinence programs have been effective. This data showed that girls in this program were seven times less likely to engage in sexual activity than girls that were not in the abstinence program (“Birth Control” 115). This proves that abstinence can help in the fight against teen pregnancies and the spread of STD’s. I do agree with this being a great tool in this fight yet, it will not keep our kids safe. Some of our kids will still choose to be sexually active and we need to prepare them for this choice.
Programs that encourage abstinence have become a vital part of school systems in the US. These programs are usually referred to as abstinence-only or value-based programs while other programs are called as safer-sex, comprehensive, secular or abstinence-plus programs which on the contrary promote the usage of effective contraception. Although abstinence-only and safer-sex programs disagree with one another, their core values and stand on the aims of sex education is to help teens develop problem-solving skills and the skill of good decision-making. They believe that adolescents will be better prepared to “act responsibly in the heat of the moment” (Silva). Most programs that have been currently implemented in the US have seen a delay in the initiation of sex among teens which proves to be a positive and desirable outcome (Silva).
Religious groups and parents argue abstinence only is all students need to be informed of in school but studies show that students sexually activity is not reduced by abstinence-only programs. The United States Department of Health and Human Services released a study in 2007 of
“I know abstinence is the only 100 percent way of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases” said Debbie Sandland. ( Day, Brenda 1) This is an example that the majority of adults prefer abstinence only education and find it appropriate. Debbie believes that abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnancy and STD’s. Yes, it is true but abstinence is not the best method to teach students because abstinence only education is not based on science and sex education programs needs to be based on science, not political or religious dogma. (Tucker Cynthia B6) “By teaching them methods of birth control, I think we are giving them a false sense of security,” Barry said.(Day, Brenda 1) This is another example of majority of adults finding abstinence only education appropriate. In my opinion, we are not giving teens a false sense of security by teaching them about birth control. We are just teaching them that are different options and they might need to use those options later on in life.
Yet before the side of a comprehensive sexual education side is examined it is important to look at why some may not believe that this the best method of keeping children healthy and safe. The most prevalent argument for abstinence only education is that it is the most effective form of contraceptive. Without having sex is it almost impossible to get pregnant and almost impossible to conduct sexuall transmitted diseases. In the U.S. almost 15% of parent’s support the teachings of abstinence only education (Santelli et al., 2006, p. 72-81). Much of this significant portion of the population believes that since many children’s and teenager’s minds are not fully developed yet that they should not be able to make decisions that will be able to impact the
The effectiveness of a program is dependant on the training provided to the educators and how well young people are interpreting and applying the information. According to the textbook, “one study found that adolescents who received comprehensive sexuality education had a slightly lower rate of intercourse and were less likely to report pregnancy, but this was not the case with abstinence-only education” (Kelly, 2011, p. 155). This same study saw no reduction in the STD rates from either form of