The Pros And Cons Of Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs

Abstinence-only programs are a form of sexual education that encourages and teaches not having sex outside of marriage. There has been a great deal of debate over if abstinence programs work amongst children and adolescents. Each of my three articles examined a different abstinence-only program that was administrated to children and adolescents. Through the L.I Teen Freedom program, the adolescents increased in indicators such as pro-abstinence attitudes, self efficacy to remain abstinent and interventions and behaviors to practice abstinence (Rue et al., 2012). Through the program, Family Action Model for Empowerment the participants decreased in the risky sexual behavior (Abel et al., 2008). Through the abstinence Reasons of Heart program,

Using their views on the accessibility of birth control, Planned Parenthood has been educating teens in schools about being sexually active and the different Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) that students could put themselves at risk for (Who We Are, 2014). Teaching kids about sex in school as a mandatory course has some mixed reviews. Some parents think that is not ethical to bring intercourse to the thoughts of their children when they should be learning more from their core curriculums. On the other hand, teenagers are known to have sex regardless if it is to their parents knowledge or not and the parents find it okay to enlighten the child about this type of

Abstinence is not an effective method of birth control. According to a study from Advocates for Youth, 95% of Americans have had premarital sex and teens who pledged to wait until marriage and 60% broke their promise after six years. In addition, the study also found that people who pledged virginity were more likely to engage in oral or anal sex than non-pledging virgin teens and less likely to use condoms once they become sexually active. Also, people who pledged were much less likely than non-pledgers to use contraception the first time they had sex and were less likely to know their STI status. Abstinence only education provides a false sense of security the first time people are having sex. They may think that they are safe when having sex for the first time not using contraception, but they are not. For example, condoms are effective 98% of the time. If students are led to believe that they are less effective, they won’t use protection during the first time they engage in sexual activity, leading to a higher risk of contracting an STD or becoming pregnant.

“Don’t have sex. Because you will get pregnant and die,” this is a well known quote from the movie Mean Girls. The quote brings laughter to many, but unfortunately, it describes the type of education that students are receiving in schools. Many schools teach an abstinence-only sex education curriculum, and some do not cover the topic at all; only 19 states require that sexual education be medically accurate, and cover the topics of sex and disease. An abundance of students have questions about sex and how their body works, and often have no choice but to look to their peers or other places for, often wrong, answers. In order for young people to make educated and intelligent decisions about their body, America needs better sex education.

The article is aimed at finding out the reasons that influenced school districts to continue with the D.A.R.E program despite all criticism and undesirable evaluation evidence presented by the media and some scholars. This program was developed in Los Angeles in 1983. Police officers visited elementary schools (particularly 5th or 6th grade). These officers provided information about drugs and the results of their use. Some scholars believed that the program was ineffective in averting drug use among adolescents. These scholars argue that the popularity of the program sounds like it’s an effective and efficient program, yet it was a failure according to their evaluation evidence. Furthermore, the point out that it did not reduce substance

In today’s modern society, sex education is seen as one of the seven plagues of Egypt. Let’s face reality, kids as young as 10 years old are having sex. According to the public health data, the chlamydia rate among teenagers have sky rocked by 80 per cent in the past two decades. Is this the result of ignorance or the lack of knowledge? In the article “The Sex Ed Revolution: a portrait of the powerful political bloc that’s waging war on Queen’s Park” by Nicholas Hune-Brown, published in Toronto Life magazine on September, 3, 2015 parents are opposed to the new sex education curriculum for various reasons. Religious and cultural beliefs plays a major part, while others believe the information will lead their kids to experiment. Children are

It is also important that we provide accurate and proven sexual classes to our students. More than 80% of Americans believe that a form of sexual education should be taught in schools.5 The majority of these people believe that this education should be focused on various forms of birth control. Currently the federal government provides funds for these evidence-based types of education through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and the Personal Responsibility Education Program. I will support programs that seek to expand funding for programs that teach a variety of birth control methods

Emma Elliott, a writer for the Concerned Women for America organization, compiled a pamphlet in 2005 in support of an abstinence-only based sexual education system. Elliott establishes her argument in a unique countering organization. She presents a popular claim about sexual education and then refutes it with a reason supporting abstinence. In general, she includes eight mainstream beliefs. The first one is rather general where she refutes that “Abstinence education doesn't work”, and she continues to say that is does and backs up her argument with multiple studies, such as the program “Best Friends” caused 80% less possibility of sexual activity. (Elliott). The second claim is that abstinence leads to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted

This major corporation works with educators to provide comprehensive sexual education for schools and programs along with providing affordable healthcare for women all over the nation. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains provides educators on how to teach sex ed through a program called The Responsible Sex Education Institute. Their goal is stated as, “to empower individuals and communities to make responsible choices regarding their sexuality and sexual health by serving as a source for safe, confidential, unbiased, and accurate information about sex and sexuality. You can rely on the Responsible Sex Education Institute to provide safe, confidential, unbiased, and accurate information.” Planned Parenthood has helped provide comprehensive sexual health and education to clinics, programs, schools and parents all over the nation as well as promoting the regulation of teen sexuality. Working alongside Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States is also pushing for comprehensive sexual

Government. The authors, Kathrin F. Stanger-Hall and David W. Hall, of “Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S.” discuss how sex education is demonstrated throughout the U.S. and how the government may be a contributor to these alarming rates (2011). They state, “some argue that sex education that covers safe sexual practices, such as condom use, sends a mixed message to students and promotes sexual activity” in describing the U.S. Government’s standpoint on sex education (Stanger-Hall & Hall, 2011, p. 1). They strictly believe that abstinence-only education throughout schools is the answer. Abstinence is restraining one’s self from all forms of sexual activity and choosing to not participate in any sexual acts. Stanger-Hall and Hall’s data collected from all U.S. states with sex education laws or policies (N=48) show that abstinence education is positively correlated to teen pregnancy and STI/STD rates (2011). Among these 48 states, 21 states choose abstinence-only education, 7 states put emphasis on abstinence, 11 states cover the idea of abstinence in subject to comprehensive sex education, while the remaining 9 states did not mention abstinence in their education policies (Stanger-Hall & Hall, 2011). Within these four groups, the

Social justice activist Beth Leyba wrote in her article for The Huffington Post that “the idea that a shame-based campaign that shrouds sex in mystery would result in teens having less sex is both misinformed and mind boggling” (Leyba). In one of her health classes, she recalls a story their teacher told him where a prince abandons his princess in a tower because she gave her opinion too much. When this material was shown to her class, she was eleven. Seeing how abstinence-only programs portray women in such a degrading and shameful light from such a young age, it’s no wonder why women experience depression at roughly twice the rate of men and Girls 14-18 years of age have consistently higher rates of depression than boys in this age group (“Depression in Women). Sexism and misogyny are both deeply rooted in Abstinence only programs, it’s time to make a change and break away from this patriarchal

The community based prevention programs for the most part are very good and do a good job in the prevention of problems. As always there are good and bad, but it’s been my experience that all in all they work and keep kids out of trouble and the ones that do get in trouble help out of trouble.

Thesis Statement: Research has shown that comprehensive sexual education is the best way to educate and help teenagers about topics like sex, sexuality, gender and much more, unlike other biased and inaccurate methods like abstinence-only education.

Restatement of the thesis statement: Providing sex education in schools is essential and will be significant in reducing teen reproductive indicators such as pregnancy, abortion, and HIV rates because the knowledge that is imparted shall enhance awareness and responsibility among the adolescents

Teenage pregnancy is the pregnancy of a young woman, usually between the age of 13 and 19 years. The rate of teenage pregnancy is among the highest in the world. Teenage pregnancy is a major problem in South African rural areas and townships that may impact the future of a young woman. Children as young as 12 years fall pregnant due to social problems in townships. Social problems include parental guidance, access to government grant, peer pressure, substance abuse, poverty, job marketing and education. Most teenagers do not have enough information on sexuality and contraceptives. Teenagers engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse lead to unwanted teenage pregnancy which is a serious social and health problem. About half of all South African teenagers aged between 15 and 19 reported having had sex. Teenage pregnancy is considered as one major distraction to the success of many girls’ education. Teenage pregnancy is a social problem with biological and physical consequences. Sexual education is now part of the learning area ‘Life Skills” in schools, but teenagers still fall pregnant because they are not open and lack transparency when discussing sexual matters. Teenage pregnancy has always been a medical problem no matter how many young girls are educated about sexual intercourse, condoms, contraceptives and HIV/AIDS.