The Abstinence Clearinghouse Blog

I read this blog this week and thought I would pass it on.  Another article that proves that Abstinence Education does work!

This is in response to the Caller-Times editorial from Sept. 27, titled “Providing funds for programs that truly work.”

Research clearly shows that abstinence does work. Studies demonstrate that abstinence-based programs have effectively reduced sexual activity and delayed the initiation of sexual activity. For example, in 2008 the latest evaluation, which examined seventh graders in Northern Virginia, reported that, one year after the program, students who received abstinence education were half as likely as non-participants to initiate sexual activity.

The research also suggests that teens who remain abstinent have higher academic achievement. In fact, a Heritage Foundation study found that compared to sexually active teens, those who remained abstinent through high school were 60 percent less likely to be expelled from school, 50 percent less likely to drop out of high school, and almost twice as likely to graduate from college. Abstinent teens also report better psychological well-being than their peers who are sexually active, and girls, in particular, appear to benefit from delayed sexual activity.

A Zogby poll in December 2003 found that 96 percent of parents said they want teenagers to be taught that abstinence is best. Seventy-nine percent said they want young people taught that sex should be reserved for marriage or in an adult relationship leading to marriage. And only 7 percent of parents think the message of contraception should receive more emphasis than abstinence.

Thus abstinence just plain works and parents overwhelmingly support the abstinence message. In fact, it is the only thing that is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Instead of giving our money to Planned Parenthood, an organization that performs hundreds of thousands of abortions throughout the world each year, let’s give our money to organizations that focus on teaching personal responsibility, building character and develop strong decision-making skills — to organizations that stress the holiness of the human body, sex within a covenantal context, and sexual abstinence outside of marriage.

The gift of freedom requires the discipline of our desires, so as to make its achievement (what we were created for) first possible and then effortless. Let’s challenge our teens not to be slaves to their passions, but instead to be truly free to be the best version of themselves — the best human beings that they can be — a person fully alive.

In addition, the gift of intelligence requires that we make intelligent choices. An intelligent choice should be one that brings about desired consequences. If the desired consequence is simply to reduce the number of out-of-wedlock births and teen pregnancies, then clearly the most intelligent choice is not to encourage teens to continue having “safe sex,” but to encourage them to discipline their desires. Presuming that teens will have sex regardless is presuming that they cannot be taught to make intelligent decisions.

Often there are several ways of seeing the same reality. Yet the depiction of the 1990s in the editorial of Sept. 27 is misleading. Abstinence education funding was included and emphasized during the 1990s, when the out-of-wedlock birthrate for teens dropped. For example, as part of the 1996 welfare reform bill, Congress enacted a $50 million per year program to fund abstinence education. And every program funded by that provision had to: “have as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity… teach that abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage is the expected standard for all school aged children … teach young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increase vulnerability to sexual advances.”

I understand and agree with the editorial’s desire to reduce the number of teen pregnancies. But abstinence education truly works and is essential in accomplishing this important mission.

Father Eduardo Montemayor

Source:  Caller.com