“Who Knew Abstinence Could Save Money”
Published by June Swenson June 12th, 2009 in AbstinenceI read with interest an article posted by Bob McAlister and Dave Wilson as they relate the story of a girl they called Amanda who found herself pregnant at 15-years-old. Her legacy—her mom was 30; her grandmother, 45. You do the math; each of them had once upon a time been in Amanda’s predicament.
In Amanda’s case, her tragic situation was compounded by the fact that the father of her baby was gone; her dad was in prison; and the man living with her mom was boyfriend number six.
Unfortunately, Amanda’s story is much like that of many others. Single moms struggling to make ends meet, sex at an early age associated with family instability, children having children with little to no hope of breaking the cycle.
These two men cited that it the 80’s and 90’s family planning programs promised breakthroughs for young women like Amanda. But, as funding for contraception-centered programs increased, STD/HIV and teen pregnancy rates skyrocketed. Subsequently, government costs for health and welfare programs ballooned out of control.
They state “The impact of out-of-wedlock and broken families has been well documented by the social sciences and is beyond dispute.”
However, there is a ray of hope in all of this. Abstinence education has reversed the trends of the 90’s, when the majority of teens were having sex. After federal and state governments made a real investment in America’s future by financially supporting abstinence education programs, the majority of today’s teens say that they are abstaining, a phenomenal change in trends. Abstinence education is teaching the skills that break the cycle of poverty for untold thousands of the next generation.
Perhaps we will be able to get America’s youth to commit to prepare for marriages, commit to marriage, honor it culturally, and prevent the hardship of divorce and kids being born out of wedlock. That’s an investment that will mean a stronger America.
Thank you Bob and Dave for shining a light on the success of abstinence education!!
Source:
Letter to the Editor
The Palmetto Scoop