Abstinence Works

Joel Mowbray

Joel Mowbray writes about the success of "abstinence only" programs for teens and how Planned Parenthood and other groups seek to undermine it. Over three million teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease every year. Reducing sexual activity should be the focus of sex-ed, not merely making sex safer.

A battle is brewing on Capitol Hill between two rather similar-sounding concepts, abstinence-only and abstinence-plus education, but the differences couldn't be greater -- or more shocking. Despite the "abstinence" in the name, parents would be appalled to see the sexually explicit material peddled to kids in abstinence-plus programs.

...But there's a big hurdle to clear in the interim. Leftist groups like Planned Parenthood are scheming to change the federal government's insistence for abstinence-only to the mislabeled abstinence-plus programs.

Promoting abstinence works...Abstinence by Choice, which operates in 20 schools in and around Little Rock, Arkansas, has had a measurable impact on the lives of the 4,000 7th-9th graders it reaches each year. Sexual-activity rates among boys plunged 30 percent, and the rate for girls fell plummeted 40 percent.

For the complete article go to the National Review Online website.