Rob Colquhoun

Does Abstinence education work? 

 

There are many positive effects of abstinence education. Abstinence education helps to reduce STDs, decrease teenage pregnancy, improve emotional health, improve socio economic background and increase the probability of a stable marriage. The evidence that abstinence education works is robust and plentiful. The national abstinence education association has identified 10 studies that show the effectiveness of those working in this field.[1] These studies show that abstinence education is effective with students and contributes towards a decrease in unwanted teenage pregnancy.

 

Some of the studies criticising abstinence education, such as the Mathematica study, were flawed in their methodology and tainted with ideology. Abstinence for some is seen as an ineffective, intolerant construction of radical right that uses fear and shame to promote religious ideology. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some members of the sexual revolution generation of the 1960s, most likely those who frolicked around in the grass at Woodstock, have failed to notice that some sexually transmitted diseases are deadly and others can leave you permanently infertile.

 

Abstinence education helps to improve academic results. A national longitudinal survey of adolescent health showed that delayed teenage sex activity had a considerable influence on college attendance and graduation. The graduation rate was 42.5% for abstinent teens (teens who did not have sex before 18) compared to 22.6% for sexually active teens. This is a truly astonishing statistic!

 

To learn about saving sex until marriage is to be helped on the pathway towards a successful marriage. Marriage breakdown costs the government billions of pounds every year. The high costs are due to anti poverty, criminal justice and education programs, through lower levels of taxes paid by individuals whose productivity has been negatively affected through childhood poverty and family fragmentation. One study estimated that marriage breakdown in the USA cost taxpayers $112 billion a year. It identified national, state and local costs which accounted for more than $1 trillion in the last decade.[2]

 

To tell young people that they are unable to control their sexual urges is to treat them like animals. This is patronising, ideologically based and devalues young people. There is a basis of betrayal in believing young people are going to do it anyway. If you expect more out of young people you will get more out of them. Condoms encourage and reinforce behaviour under different risk conditions rather than encourage a change of behaviour towards abstinence and faithful monogamy.[3] This lulls teenagers into a false sense of security as condoms do not provide sufficient protection against most STDs.  In the words of Jerry Springer, “Teenagers have no business having sex at all.” It is my hope that chastity is making some kind of comeback and that it is spreading through popular culture. It’s now going to be cool to be a virgin.