High STD Rates, Abstinence Ed Link
Experts Connect Teen Infections with Abstinence-Only Sex Education
© Kat Long
May 12, 2008
U.S. health officials believe abstinence-only sex education has had no positive effect on high school students, and may be a factor in the high rates of sexually-transmitted disease in teens. Several health organizations testified before Congress in April 2008 to refute the Bush Administration’s claim that abstinence-only curricula cut teen pregnancy and STD rates.
The Congressional hearing came soon after the Centers for Disease Control released a bombshell report in March 2008, which found that one in four sexually active American girls between the ages of fourteen and nineteen had one of four monitored sexually-transmitted diseases: human papillomavirus (HPV), herpes, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis (a parasite). Of the African-American girls in the study, half tested positive for one of the STDs.
Eighteen percent of the girls had HPV, and four percent had chlamydia, the two most prevalent STDs. Even more alarmingly, fifteen percent of the girls had more than one STD.
Opponents of the government’s funding of abstinence-only sex education—amounting to about $1.3 billion since the late 1990s—have cited the CDC report in their arguments for funding comprehensive sex education, which includes discussion of STD prevention. Several studies of abstinence curricula, including the definitive assessment by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published in 2004, have shown flaws and inaccuracies in the medical and social information they offer to students. The GAO argued that such curricula do not just give students mixed messages, but could actually encourage teenagers to have unsafe sex, leading to STDs
Differing Opinions
Dr. Margaret Blythe of the American Academy of Pediatrics, as quoted by Reuters, told Congress, “There is evidence to suggest that some of these programs are even harmful and have negative consequences by not providing adequate information for those teens who do become sexually active.” Medical organizations opposing abstinence-only education also include the American Public Health Association, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, the American Psychological Association, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, among others.
Congressional Republicans who support abstinence-only education acknowledge the high infection rate among teenage girls, but argue that abstinence is the only completely effective way of preventing STDs, and the curricula should not be abandoned. Many of these supporters, as Planned Parenthood and the Guttmacher Institute have pointed out, also oppose abortion, family planning, and discussion of homosexuality in the classroom.
Though seventeen states have voluntarily refused federal money for education based on the government’s abstinence-only requirement, Congress has made no definitive move to limit funding or rewrite the funding requirements as of May 2008. This controversy is not likely to be resolved in the near future.
