Abstinence and Comprehensive Sex Education in Our Schools

According to an article from Guttmacher Institute, the rates of teen pregnancy, births, and abortions have been decreasing in every state, but nonetheless they are still occurring.  From 2010, New Mexico has the highest rate of teen pregnancies being 80/1000 and New Hampshire being the lowest at 28/1000. Though, Washington D.C. was not included, which would otherwise have the highest rate at 90/1000. 

Teen Pregnancy Rates in 2010 from Guttmacher Institute.
Kost, Kathryn, and Stanley Henshaw. "U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions, 2010: National and State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity." U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions, 2010: National and State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity (n.d.): n. pag. Guttmacher Institute. May 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

 More statistics with Teen Pregnancies, birth, and abortions rates can be found with The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Many states that have been using Abstinence teachings have a lower rate of Teen Pregnancies, and information can be found about the school education programs in different states from Abstinence Works. New Mexico has the highest rate of Teen Pregnancies does not have a strict system for teaching about abstinence; school districts choose what age and information is introduced and parent consent is not required. In New Hampshire, the lowest teen pregnancy rate, have a system to teach all grades with slowly teaching more as the children grow. "In elementary schools, this program must include “the effects of drugs, alcohol, venereal diseases, and AIDS on the human body.” In middle/junior high and high schools, this instruction must include the above as well as “systematic classroom instruction and activities designed to enable students to respect and support the decisions of others relative to abstinence from sexual activity.” Students must complete one-quarter credit in health education including instruction in venereal diseases and AIDS." In Washington DC, the education system must include instructions on human sexuality and reproduction, though must be age-appropriate. "This instruction must include information on the human body, intercourse, contraception, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases (Sths), pregnancy, abortion, childbirth, sexual orientation, decision-making skills regarding parenting and sexuality, and awareness and prevention of rape and sexual assault."

Abstinence Works is a website run by The National Abstinence Education Foundation (NAEF). Their mission is to seek to improve the health and future prospects for children and families through the provision of Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) Abstinence Education thereby reducing teen pregnancies, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), and harmful emotional consequences.

Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) Abstinence Education is the focus of abstinence-centered education to help empower teens to make the healthiest choice for their future. Topics typically taught in Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) Abstinence Education include: developing healthy relationship and avoiding unhealthy relationships; setting goals and making good decisions; developing refusal skills and understanding and avoiding the risks of STDs, teen pregnancy and negative emotional consequences. Information about contraceptives is taught but always in the context of why abstinence is the best choice.

It Works - Seventeen different studies, all conducted by independent researchers, prove Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) Abstinence Education reduces teen sex.

Parents Prefer It - A study released in August 2010 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicates that 70% of parents and almost as many teens believe that the abstinence message corresponds most closely with their own values and beliefs regarding sex education.

Healthiest Choice for Teen! - Only abstinence is 100% effective in eliminating the risk of STDs, teen pregnancy and possible emotional consequences.

The following is an article from Abstinence Works that helps to outline the importance of teaching abstinence in our Sexual Education Programs in school.

Abstinence and Comprehensive Sex Education in Our Schools

There is a common perception that school-based comprehensive sex education programs areeffective at protecting teens from the problems related to sexual activity while abstinence education programs are not. In fact, some have called for the complete abandonment of abstinence education. With 1 in 4 teen girls in the U.S. now infected with an STD,1 there is clearly a need for more effective programs to protect adolescents. However, before a program can be called effective it is necessary to clarify what “effective” means. This document offers basic criteria for effective programs and presents evidence about the effectiveness of both comprehensive and abstinence-based sex education in our schools.

A. What is an Effective Program? After more than 15 years of evaluating school-based sex education programs, the Institute for Research & Evaluation suggests that effective programs should produce:

1. Sustained Results—The program’s impact on teens’ behavior should last for a substantial period of time, at least 12 months following their program participation.
2. Broad-based Impacts—Claims of significant program impact should be based on the entire group of program participants and not just on subgroups.
3. Real Protection—The program should impact the teen behaviors that have been proven to be protective: sexual abstinence or consistent condom use (i.e., using a condom every time). Consistent condom use is necessary because several studies have found that non-consistentuse provided inadequate STD protection or resulted in higher rates of STDs.2 However, even consistent condom use does not provide complete protection from STDs3 or prevent the increased emotional harm and sexual violence associated with teen sexual activity.4

B. Evidence of Effectiveness for School-based Comprehensive Sex Education.“Comprehensive sex education” (CSE) is a term applied to programs that purport to teach both abstinence and condom use as a central part of the curriculum. The Institute has reviewed the large body of research on the effectiveness of these programs in school classroom settings (excluding other settings such as clinics or community programs—see notation5). In this document we refer to these as “school-based” programs. Although the perception may be that CSE programs in the schools are successful, when they are evaluated against the above criteria, there is a surprising lack of evidence to support that assumption.6 For example:

1. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy published a landmark summary of 115 evaluation studies covering 20 years of research on sex education called Emerging Answers 2007. Their report states that two-thirds of the CSE programs they reviewed “had positive behavioral effects.” 7 However, we found that:

• No school-based CSE programs had increased the number of teens who used condoms consistently for more than 3 months.8
• No school-based CSE programs resulted in a decrease in teen pregnancy or STD rates for any period of time.9
• Only one school-based CSE program delayed the onset of teen sexual intercourse for 12 months across the entire program group10 and only three programs increased frequency of condom use (but not consistent use) for the same time period.11
• No school-based CSE programs increased both teen abstinence and condom use for the full program group for more than 3 months.

1. Another report entitled What Works 2008: Curriculum-Based Programs that Prevent Teen Pregnancy12 lists 28 prevention programs that it says have the “strongest evidence of success.”

• Surprisingly, 20 of those 28 programs did not even measure rates of teen pregnancy as an outcome.
• Of the 8 programs that measured pregnancy outcomes, only 3 reduced pregnancy rates for up to 12 months and none of them were school classroom-based CSE programs.13
• No school-based CSE programs in the report reduced teen pregnancy for any time period.

C. Evidence of Effectiveness for School-based Abstinence Education. Scientific evaluation is relatively new to abstinence education, and the number of good studies is limited. However, a pattern of evidence is emerging that indicates well-designed abstinence programs can be effective:

• Three recent peer-reviewed studies of school-based abstinence education found significant reductions in sexual activity across all program participants. Two of the programs, Heritage Keepers14 and Reasons of the Heart,15 reduced the number of teens who became sexually active by about one-half, 12 months after the program. A third abstinence program, Making a Difference, produced significant reductions in teen sexual activity 24 months after the program.16
• In Emerging Answers 2007 one study of school-based abstinence education found a significant delay in the onset of teen sexual intercourse across all participants 12 months after the program.17
• Several studies have also found that abstinence education did not decrease condom use for teens who later became sexually active.18,19
• Like many evaluations of abstinence education, the 3 peer-reviewed studies above did not measure impact on pregnancy or STDs.14,15,16 While it is evident that abstinent behavior eliminates these consequences, current studies of school-based abstinence programs have not demonstrated reductions in these outcomes.

D. Summary. Using the criteria outlined above to examine the body of research on the effectivenessof school-based sex education, we find the following:

1. Comprehensive sex education purports to promote both abstinence and condom use, yet we see no evidence that school-based CSE programs are effective at improving both of these outcomes.
2. School-based CSE programs have shown no evidence of effectiveness at decreasing teen pregnancy or STDs, or increasing consistent condom use.
3. Only a few school-based CSE programs have increased any type of condom use (e.g., at first or last intercourse) for a significant period of time.
4. Four school-based abstinence programs have produced broad-based and sustained increases in the percentage of youth who remain sexually abstinent.

1. Conclusions. The common perception about the effectiveness of these two prevention strategies is not accurate. When judged against criteria of 1) sustained results, 2) broad-based impacts, and 3) real protection, there is little evidence that school-based comprehensive sex education strategies are effective. The evidence does not indicate that combining abstinence education with contraceptive-based education in the classroom is effective. There is evidence that school-based abstinence education can be an effective prevention strategy. In conclusion, the research does not support abandoning abstinence education in favor of a comprehensive sex education strategy that has not been proven to be successful.