Calls for
abstinence education follows - "contraception-based approach taught in 75%
of U.S. schools is failing young people."
By Michael
Baggot
ATLANTA,
GA, March 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Twenty six percent of US teenage girls
have contracted at least one of the four major sexually transmitted diseases,
according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
released Tuesday. The CDCP estimates that 3.2 million US teen girls have
an STD.
The study
examined the sexual behavior of 838 teenage girls, half of whom admitted to
having sex during their teen years. Of that half, 40 percent had
contracted an STD.
Nearly half
of the black teens tested had an STD, while 20 percent of the white teens were
infected.
Half of the
tested teens who had had three or more partners were infected, compared to a 20
percent infection rate among those who had had only one sexual partner.
Of the
tested teens, 18 percent had human papilloma virus, or HPV, 4 percent had
chlamydia, 2.5 percent had trichomoniasis, and 2 percent had genital herpes.
Dorothy
Furgerson, medical director at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, encouraged better
sex education programs, "so that young people who decide to have sex do
protect themselves against sexually transmitted infections."
Valerie
Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association,
however, pointed out, "Teens are erroneously taught that a condom makes
sex safe. When we learn that one in four teen girls is infected with a sexually
transmitted disease (STD), it becomes clear that the contraception-based
approach taught in 75% of U.S. schools is failing young people."
"The CDC study shows that the sexual health of teens should be paramount. The
risk-avoidance message of abstinence education should be the top public health
priority in response to this new information," added Huber.
"Comprehensive"
Sexual Education programs encourage condom use as a means of reducing STD
infection.
In question
28 of The Facts of Life, Brian Clowes, PhD, examines the ineffectiveness of
condoms to prevent various STDs.
Clowes
writes that many studies reporting on the effectiveness of condoms in
preventing HIV penetration only take into account one of the four types of
stress intercourse places upon the condom. Clowes cites a 1992 Food and
Drug Administration study that more accurately reproduced the effects of
intercourse on condoms and revealed leakage of HIV-sized particles in one third
of tested condoms.
Clowes adds
that condom breakage contributes to the spread of STDs. In 1994,
Contraceptive Technology, examining seven different studies, found that 2.5
percent of condoms burst.
Clowes also
notes that condoms do not prevent STDs that are spread through skin-to-skin
contact, such as HVS. Furthermore, both gonorrhea and herpes can be
transmitted through oral sex.
Since the
increase in abstinence education over the last decade, the young, unmarried
teen birth rate has declined 50 percent, noted the abstinence education
organization Project Reality in its 2007 study. (Charts illustrating
these declines can be found by clicking here (http://www.projectreality.org/pdf/contentmgmt/1014_Teen_Birt... ) for age 10-14 chart and here {http://www.projectreality.org/pdf/contentmgmt/1517_Teen_Birt... ) for age 15-17 chart.)
Dr. Stan
Weed of the Institute for Research and Evaluation in Salt Lake City released a
2007 study that revealed the superiority of abstinence education over
"comprehensive" sexual education in preventing the negative
consequences of pre-marital sex (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007_docs/CompSexEd.pdf).
"Within
the United States, sexual activity rates have been going down among teenagers
for about the last 12 or 13 years, and that coincides with when the abstinence
education started. Abortion, pregnancies and out of wedlock births rates have
also been going down among teens during that same time period. However,
pregnancy, abortion and out of wedlock births have been rising for the older
age group, between 19-25, a group that has not been targeted by abstinence
programs," Weed told LifeSiteNews.com.
Weed's
study also noted the emotional problems associated with the sexual promiscuity
"comprehensive" sexual education promotes. "Sexually
active teens are more than twice as likely as virgin teens to be depressed or
attempt suicide," the study notes. Sexually active teens are also
much more likely to suffer dating violence, sexual exploitation, or rape.
The study
also points out that, in contrast to "comprehensive" sexual education
programs, abstinence education, "emphasize principles of self-restraint,
self-esteem, future goals, long-term commitment, and unselfishness in
relationships, and teach healthy relationship skills, all of which support the
formation of strong marriages and healthy families."
Learn about
the National Abstinence Education Association:
http://www.abstinenceassociation.org
Learn more
about Project Reality:
http://www.projectreality.org