Strollerderby

According to a recent article in the NYTimes, more than half of all teens actually ARE abstinent (per a 2007 report). Even allowing for some kids lying in their reporting of intercourse, this is a significant percentage.

www.nytimes.com/.../27well.html

A 2005 report I've seen on percentages of youth sexual activity stated that a little over 60% of both boys and girls have had vaginal intercourse (only kind of sex polled for that survey) by the time they graduated high school. So yes, lots of people under 18 are not having vaginal intercourse.

That's fabulous, but I'm not sure what it has to do with the Abstinence-Only vs. Comprehensive Sexuality Education debate.

The difference between Abstinence-Only and Comprehensive Sexuality Education isn't the abstinence portion. Comprehensive sexuality educators ALWAYS discuss abstinence as a positive option - and they also encourage discussion of exactly what "abstinence" means, in terms of the diversity of sexual activity (i.e. oral sex, anal sex, and other activities won't get anyone pregnant, but they Do count as "sex"). The difference is that Comprehensive Sex Ed also provides medically accurate, supportive information for those who *do* choose to engage in sexual activity with partners, so as to reduce the physical and emotional risks that can result from partnered sexual activity. Since this information isn't time-limited, it's also useful for the youth who are not having partnered sex during high school, but may after they graduate.

Comprehensive sex ed also tends to acknowledge the reality that premarital sex does not automatically result in pregnancy, STIs, abusive relationships, guilt and regret, emotional and spiritual degradation, insanity, narcotic addiction, suicide, death from AIDS, or any of the other myriad personal and social ills touted by various Abstinen ce-Only curriculae. A lot of people have very positive, healthy, responsible, mutually beneficial sexual experiences in adolescence and early adulthood. I don't see any reason to cover that up, anymore than I see reason to avoid giving young people accurate information on sexual arousal cycles, contraception, and various ways to reduce their STI/HIV risks (including abstaining from partnered sexual activity). Doesn't mean anyone HAS to have premarital sex if they don't want to, or that those who "save it for marriage" are socially-stunted dorks worthy of ridicule. CSE is very much against the ridicule and stereotyping. Can't really say the same for Abstinence-Only.

That's great, but that leaves slightly less than half of all teens that need to be very well educated about birth control and STD prevention.

In a large study by the Centers for Disease Control, researchers found that although teenagers who take “virginity pledges” may wait longer to initiate sexual activity, they are more likely to enjoy oral and anal sex, and they are just as likely as other students to be infected with sexually transmitted diseases. Eighty-eight percent eventually have premarital intercourse. While abstinence-only programs show little evidence of sustained effect on a student’s sexual activities, they do reduce the use of contraception, including condoms, when sex does take place.

www.nytimes.com/.../study-finds-that-teenage-virginity-pledges-are-rarely-kept.html

Amazing that Levi's the rational one in all of this.

So what, no comments allowed about the faults of abstinence only sex education?

Sorry to be so defensive, I just say that I credit the informative and realistic sex education I received in school as helping me and many of my classmates get out of our small town sans teen pregnancies and diseases.

It's such a joke to act as if what is taught in schools about sexual education has any effect. Don't you remember being in high school? How ridiculous health/sex ed classes were? How little impact those classes had on your decisions? Even wearing the pregnant belly, carrying around the 5 pound flour sack or the mechanical doll . . . no research shows behavior changes as result of public education sex ed classes.

What does work? Parents. Church. Friends. Your dorky health teacher . . . not so much.

i totally disagree Reality Check. My freshman High School Science class taught comprehensive sex-ed class with an emphasis on abstinence as the safest course and that class is very much a part of why i waited to have sex until i was in my early twenties.

our teacher discussed with us the positive and negative emotional and physical effects that all kinds of sex (vaginal, oral, anal...) have, as well as all the different kinds of birth control and their effectiveness against pregnancy and STD's.

we were also given very comprehensive lessons about all the different kinds of STD's and what they do to our bodies. it scared the junk out of me and i decided that at 15 i was not willing to take the risk of getting some disease or getting pregnant by some dumb-ass boy who was lead around by his penis.

all knowledge is worth having. giving kids all the information so that they can make an informed decision is always the best idea.