Teenage sexual activity is a major
national problem that contributes to the rising incidence of
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), emotional and psychological
injuries, and out-of-wedlock childbearing. Significantly, President
George Bush has endorsed abstinence education as an effective means
of reducing early sexual activity and providing a foundation for
personal responsibility and enduring marital commitment. Many
Washington policymakers are aware not only of the consequences of
early sexual activity, but also of the undesirable contents of
conventional "safe sex" education programs and the findings in the
professional literature concerning the effectiveness of genuine
abstinence programs.
The
U.S. House of Representatives, as part of welfare reauthorization,
recently voted to continue spending $50 million a year over the
next five years on programs that take an
abstinence-in-preparation-for-marriage approach to sex education.
The House legislation, the Personal Responsibility, Work, and
Family Promotion Act of 2002 (H.R. 4737), reaffirmed a policy
decision Congress first made in 1996 to begin offering money to
such programs through welfare reform. President Bush is seeking to
increase the amount of money set aside next year to help states
teach authentic abstinence as the way to avoid not merely unwanted
pregnancies, but also STDs, AIDS, and the psychological damage
associated with early casual sex.
However, some legislators support funding
the failed sex education programs that do not teach authentic
abstinence. For example, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max
Baucus (D-MT) has added an amendment to the House bill that takes
such an approach.
In
considering this issue and examining the data on teen sexual
activity, sexually transmitted diseases, out-of-wedlock
childbearing, and sex education, Members of Congress should keep
five crucial points in mind:
- Authentic abstinence programs have proven
to be effective in reducing sexual activity among young
people.
- Young people are increasingly embracing
abstinence as a positive value. Over the past decade, the number of
sexually active teenagers declined from 54 percent to just under 46
percent.
- Because "safe sex" instruction has become
increasingly unpopular with parents, promoters of such instruction
increasingly camouflage most safe-sex programs with the terms
"abstinence plus" or "abstinence first." In reality, these programs
contain little information on abstinence, promoting instead
contraceptive use and implicitly condoning early casual sexual
activity.
- The share of government funds devoted to
abstinence education is very small--the federal government spends
only $102 million on abstinence education compared with the $1.1
billion being spent on safe-sex, contraception, and pregnancy
prevention programs.
- In addressing concerns about teen
sexuality, Congress should focus on the effectiveness of abstinence
education and not create any new safe-sex programs as the Baucus
Work, Opportunity and Responsibility for Kids (WORK) Act (H.R. 4737
as amended and passed by the Senate Finance Committee in July)
would do.
Authentic Abstinence Programs are
Effective
Critics of abstinence education often
assert that, while abstinence education is a good idea, there is no
evidence that such education reduces sexual activity among young
people. Such criticism is erroneous. The Heritage Foundation
recently identified 10 scientifically evaluated abstinence programs
that have reduced teen sexual activity by 17 percent to 50 percent.
Each of the programs evaluated is a real abstinence (or what is
conventionally termed an "abstinence only") program--that is, it
does not provide contraceptives to participants or encourage their
use.
Furthermore, one study indicated that more
than 90 percent of the public now believes that abstinence is the
right standard for school-age youth.
The Decrease in Teen Sexual Activity
Evidence that young people are responding
to an unambiguous message about abstinence is growing. For example,
new federal data reveal that virginal teens now outnumber sexually
active ones. The 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
(YRBSS) report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)--which asked 13,601 teens about such things as substance
abuse, sexual behavior, and physical activity--found that 45.6
percent of high school youth said they had had sex. This is
significantly lower than the 54.1 percent found in 1990.
The
largest social change occurring within this same time frame that
could have contributed to this significant decline in teen sexual
activity was the substantial growth in abstinence education
programs.
Among those who cite the relationship is Peter Brandt of
Colorado-based Focus on the Family: "The federal Title V abstinence
program is having a tremendous impact."
Similarly, a study conducted by the
Washington, D.C.-based research group Child Trends suggests that
teen pregnancy and birth rates declined in the 1990s partially as
the result of increased abstinence (reduced levels of sexual
activity). For example, the study found that the percentage of
teens who reported ever having sexual intercourse declined for both
males and females from 1988 to 1995. Furthermore, the greater
availability of contraception and abortion during the past 25 years
did not prevent an increase in teen pregnancies and births,
especially those out of wedlock.
Safe Sex Is Not Safe
Health authorities must now contend with
more than 20 sexually transmitted diseases, up from two (syphilis
and gonorrhea) before the introduction of "safe sex" education.
Moreover, STDs caused by three types of virus--the herpes virus,
the human papilloma virus (HPV), and the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV)--are incurable and proliferate despite "safe sex"
practices.
One-fourth of sexually active teens have
contracted an STD. Overall, two-thirds of all STDs occur in people
ages 25 and younger. Research shows that condom use offers
relatively little protection (from "zero" to "some") against herpes
and no protection from the deadly HPV, the leading viral STD and
the cause of nearly all cases of cervical cancer that kill
approximately 4,800 women a year. A review of scientific
literature also shows that, on average, condoms failed to prevent
the transmission of the HIV virus, which causes the acquired immune
deficiency syndrome (AIDS), between 15 percent and 31 percent of
the time.
With
roughly 20,000 new AIDS cases being diagnosed each year among
people ages 25 and under, it is apparent that "safe
sex" is not safe at all. Clearly, abstinence is the only certain
way to prevent pregnancy among America's youth and to stop the
spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
"Abstinence First" Is Not Abstinence
In
recent years, with the failure of traditional "safe sex" and
pregnancy prevention programs, parental support for authentic
abstinence education has grown. Because of this, many traditional
safe-sex programs have begun to call themselves "abstinence-plus,"
"abstinence-based," and now "abstinence-first" education.
Regrettably, there is little abstinence
training in these programs. Instead, they are thinly disguised
efforts to promote condom use and alternative sexual activity, such
as masturbation. The content of most "abstinence-plus" curricula
would be alarming to most parents. For example, such programs
typically have condom-use exercises in which middle school students
practice unrolling condoms on cucumbers or dildos. Despite
the growing popularity of abstinence-only programs and mounting
evidence of their effectiveness, some policymakers continue to
promote these old-style safe-sex programs disguised as abstinence.
For example, the Baucus WORK Act passed by the Senate Finance
Committee in July would create a new "abstinence-first" program for
teens.
The curricula it would fund would be the same as that of the
controversial (now defunct) "Programs That Work" initiative of the
Centers for Disease Control. Despite its name, the
Baucus program would have nothing to do with abstinence, but it
would promote condom use in the nation's schools. Such
"abstinence-first" programs send the implicit message that society
expects and accepts casual sexual activity by teens.
Also
typical of the curricula that the Baucus WORK bill would fund is
"Focus on Kids," an "abstinence-plus" program promoted by CDC that
teaches middle school and high school students:
There are other ways to be close to a
person without having sexual intercourse.... The list may include
body massage, bathing together, masturbation, sensuous feeding,
fantasizing, watching erotic movies, reading erotic books and
magazines....
Similarly, in another abstinence-plus
program promoted by the CDC, "Be Proud! Be Responsible!" teachers
instruct students to:
Brainstorm ways to increase spontaneity
and the likelihood that they'll use condoms. (Examples: Store
condoms under mattress, eroticize condom use with partner.) Now ask
[students] to suggest ways to make condom use fun and pleasurable
by finishing these sentences... "Condoms could make sex more fun
by.... Condoms would not ruin the mood if we...."
To
call these programs abstinence is a travesty. Yet these are types
of programs that the Baucus WORK bill would fund. Not only do such
programs, by their very nature, minimize the abstinence component
of sex education, but they also send an explicit message condoning
sexual activity among the youth they teach. Abstinence-first programs
assume that some teens will be sexually active and seek to equip
them for the activity. But those that essentially convey the
message "when you decide to engage in sex (after abstaining),
here's how to do it" substantially weaken any admonition against
early non-marital sexual activity.
Furthermore, since all sexual activity
originally follows abstinence, "abstinence-first" by name implies
that the program is concerned only with teaching abstinence up
until a young person decides to have sex--yet another mixed message
for today's youth. On one hand, the name urges young people to
abstain, but on the other, the program itself supplies them with
the information and means to engage in promiscuity and casual
sex.
Lopsided Funding
The
government already spends massive amounts of money on "safe sex,"
contraceptive promotion, and pregnancy prevention. In fiscal year
2002 alone, the federal government spent roughly $1.1 billion on
such programs (see Table 1). By contrast, that same year it spent
only $102 million on abstinence education. Thus, for every dollar
spent on abstinence, the government spent around $11 on safe sex
and contraceptive promotion.
Despite this sizeable difference in
funding, the Baucus WORK bill would create yet another safe-sex
program; and at a cost of $250 million over five years, it would
create an even greater imbalance between spending on abstinence and
spending on safe sex and contraceptive promotion. Clearly, the
evidence shows that Congress should address its concerns about
teenage sexuality by increasing abstinence funding, not by creating
another safe-sex program.
CONCLUSION
Real
abstinence education is essential to reducing out-of-wedlock
childbearing, preventing sexually transmitted diseases, and
improving emotional and physical well-being among the nation's
youth. Real abstinence education programs help young people develop
an understanding of commitment, fidelity, and intimacy that will
serve them well as the foundations of healthy marital life in the
future.
Authentic abstinence programs are the best
defense against the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases
afflicting America's youth. Abstinence programs inform young people
of this truth: The most important risk factor for contracting
venereal disease or an STD is the number of sexual partners one
has; and the earlier one begins sexual activity, the more sexual
partners a person is likely to have.
Abstinence education teaches that human
happiness is most likely to be found in marital commitment, not
casual sex, and that abstinence is the best preparation for
intimacy and love in later years. As President Bush points out,
"abstinence works every time." Promoting abstinence is
clearly the best policy for reducing early sexual activity, STDs,
and out-of-wedlock births-anything else is dishonest and
unsafe.
Many
harmful programs, such as the proposed "abstinence-first" program
in the Baucus WORK bill, are disguised as abstinence education but
in reality offer only well-worn "safe-sex" instruction. They lack
the positive messages of real abstinence. They have little to do
with delaying sexual activity among youth and nothing to do with
preparing youth for lives of loving commitment.
America's youth deserve better. President
Bush said it well:
[W]hen our children face a choice between
self-restraint and self-destruction, government should not be
neutral. Government should not sell children short by assuming they
are incapable of acting responsibly. We must promote good
choices.
Jennifer Garrett is a Research
Associate in Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage
Foundation.