The concept of the birds and the bees is one that we all recall being exposed to, or being shielded from, growing up. The way that family, school, and media viewed sex is what told us how to act when temptations occured.
My family was what you would consider an abstinence family. I found out after graduation that my family’s draconian abstinence-before-marriage preaching was a farce. My parents lied to me, saying that they had waited for marriage and told us to wait, too. Once I graduated high school they conceded that they were just saying that to keep me from getting pregnant in high school, and now that I’m in college I can do whatever. While my parents’ way might be strange, we can all recall how we were supposed to think of sex while young.
I have to say, the abstinence stuff really resonated with me throughout my childhood. In many ways, my parents’ abstinence goals were successful. However, it didn’t help with my little sister. As effective as these programs and talks may be, there will always be those who don’t abide by them. These led me to my doubts about how good it is to have someone who is not knowledgeable about sex because, like my younger sister, people always slip through the cracks of these abstinence-only programs. If they aren’t prepared, it could mean having children when someone isn’t ready.
A Washington Post article suggests “sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity.” The egregious problem here is that ‘a significant portion’ is not everyone. Those extra people who aren’t the significant portion are then bound to be confused when they decide to have sex anyway, and will make big sexual mistakes due to ignorance growing up.
Sometimes I feel like talking about how abstinence-only programs make things worse has become clichéd. However, it needs to be reiterated because it really is true yet, inexplicably, there is still a considerable part of the population who doesn’t believe so.
While the abstinence approach was successful for my older sister and me, and it can keep a lot of people from having sex, the negative impacts of abstinence-only programs are significantly greater than the negative impacts of teaching people sexual education. The problem with sex education is that people do have sex before marriage. While this can be an awkward thing, or something that bothers parents, it happens anyway. The dissenting voices of sex ed might also argue that of teenagers have sex, they are more likely to get pregnant, since abstinence guarantees that they will not get pregnant. While that is true, it is not realistic.
Maybe test results show that abstinence programs can be largely successful. Still, it leaves a lot of people out and the negative consequences of that can be much worse than any benefits. It’s like saying we’ll give everyone a vitamin that helps make stronger bones. However, 15% of the people who take this vitamin will develop cancer and several will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout their life to take care of the cancer and they will be in pain often. Now, having strong bones is great, but would it really be worth the cancer? Thoughts like these should be considered when we develop our stance on sexual education versus abstinence programs, and hopefully soon we can find the best medium.
Abstinence programs need to be re-evaluated
Published: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Updated: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Be the first to comment on this article!