Why Choose Abstinence Essays - Human Sexuality, Personal Life

Why Choose Abstinence Through out the years, pre-marital sex has become more and more accepted in our society. It is depicted everyday in magazines, television shows, and movies. Because of this wide portrayal and acceptance of pre-marital sex, many more teens and young adults have chosen to engage in sexual activities. According to a 1992 Centers for Disease Control study, 54 percent of American high school students (61 percent of boys and 48 percent of girls) say they have had sexual intercourse (Lickona 84). One out of ten U.S. teenagers become pregnant every year and approximately 416,000 teens have abortions (Donovan 28). Also, one in four children is born out of wedlock, compared to one in twenty in 1960. Because of the rise in pre-marital sexual activities, there has also been a rise in the number of people infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STD's). Twelve million people are infected with STD's each year, and of these infections, 63 percent are under the age of 20 (Lickona 316). Many people believe that the answer to these problems with adolescents and young adults lies in the teaching of sex education in the school systems. However, what type of sex education works the best? Advocates of comprehensive sexuality education believe that their approach seeks to help young people understand sexuality as integral to their identity and enables them to make responsible life long decisions (Brick and Roffman 90). There are more than sixty main stream organization that support this approach through their membership in the National Coalition to Support Sexuality Education. Some of these organizations are the American Medical Association, American School Health Association, American Association of School Administrators, National School Boards Association, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine. Under the comprehensive plan for sex education, students learn to ask questions, predict consequences, examine values, and plan for the future (Brick and Roffman 91). This educ ation starts during the preschool and elementary years, which helps students to receive a total understanding of sex and it's pro's and con's by the middle and high school years. Advocates of the comprehensive style believe that it is unproductive to present only one option (abstinence) to students in a world that promotes pre-marital sex through advertising and the media. They feel that students in programs that only teach abstinence are at a high risk of contracting STD's or becoming pregnant if they do decide to become sexually active, because they were not taught the proper use of contraceptives. Peggy Brick, a director of education at Planned Parenthood of Northern New Jersey, and Deborah Roffman, a sexuality educator and consultant, believe that advocates of abstinence only programs, ?do not prepare youth to make decisions in a highly complex world. They permit choice but their choice and deliberately deny potential life-saving information to those who do not conform to their viewpoint? (325). These two women also feel that ?demanding an abstinence only approach dismisses people whose values regarding sexual behaviors differs from their own, asserting t hat these people are without values? (325). However, Brick and Roffman believe instead that ?comprehensive sex education is based on values appropriate to our democratic and pluralistic society, which includes respect for people's diverse viewpoints about controversial issues? (326). Despite the fact that comprehensive sex education may respect many people's viewpoints, it does not prove that this type of education works. During the years 1971 to 1981, government funding at all levels for contraceptive education increased by 4,000 percent. During this time period teen pregnancies increased by 20 percent and teen abortions nearly doubled (Lickona 88). In 1986, a study by Johns Hopkins University concluded that comprehensive sex education did not reduce teen pregnancies (Dawson 162). Another study done in 1986, the Lou Harris Poll, was commissioned by Planned Parenthood (a leading sponsor of comprehensive sex education). Through this study they found that teens that took a comprehensive sex education course (including contraceptive education) were significantly more likely to initiate sexual intercourse than teens whose sex education did not discuss contraceptives (Lickona 317). Dr. John Sholl, a retired medical doctor, call's the term safe sex, which is taught in comprehensive sex education classes, ?a misleading and incongruous combination of words? (Ferriss 3). He believes that teaching students