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God's will be done and may He have mercy upon us all.

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A Catholic who follows Rome & the Magisterium. I'm against gay "marriage", abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, human cloning. Altar girls, Communion in the hand, Eucharistic Ministers and "Protestant" music in the Church doesn't bother me at all. A proud American retired submarine sailor. Our borders should be secured with a 10 ft. high fence topped by concertina wire with minefields out to 20 yards on both sides and an additional 10 yards filled with warning signs outside of that Let's get energy independent NOW! Back Israel to the max, stop appeasing followers of the Pedophile Prophet. Pro 2nd Amendment, pro death penalty, Repeal all hate crime legislation. Back the police unless you'd rather call a hippie when everything hits the fan. Get government out of dealing with education, childhood obesity and the enviornment. Stop using the military for sociological experiments and if we're in a war don't micromanage their every move. Kill your television, limit time on the computer and pick up a book. God's will be done and may He have mercy upon us all.

Monday, February 01, 2010

Abstinence works...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study released today finds abstinence education effective in reducing sexual activity among youth while comprehensive sexual education flops. Students participating in an eight-hour abstinence program showed a one-third decrease in their rates of sexual activity compared to non-participants.

The study, involving black middle-school students, appears in the February 2010 Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, a publication of the American Medical Association.

It found the students in the abstinence program showed lower levels of sexual activity even two years later.

The National Abstinence Education Association tells LifeNews.com that the study shows positive outcomes for high-risk, African-American, middle school students.

"The study shows that a high-risk population of 6th and 7th graders receiving abstinence-centered education reduced sexual initiation, reduced the number of sexual partners (a crucial determinant in acquiring an STD), and further showed that abstinence instruction did not deter the use of condoms (a common charge brought by anti-abstinence critics)," NAEA's Valerie Huber said.

Of particular note, students were significantly less likely to initiate sex with the abstinence-centered approach than any other sex education strategy

“If we are serious about reaching teens with the skills they need to resist sexual activity, the findings supporting the effectiveness of abstinence education should not be ignored," she said.

The study authors provide insight that these findings are important because the abstinence-centered approach is preferred in many communities throughout the country.

"The need to provide American parents with choices regarding the type of sex education their children are offered not only respects local control but underscores the fact that abstinence-centered education is an important response to the complex issue of teen sex," Huber said. "Federal funding guidelines require all abstinence-centered education to be theory-based, medically accurate, and focused exclusively on health - the very tenets that describe the studied abstinence program."

While the studies authors say abstinence education is the primary approach funded and promoted by the United States, Huber says the opposite is true.

She said that, during the last ten years, comprehensive sex education received four times the federal dollars as abstinence education.

"The Obama Administration completely eliminated abstinence education from the 2010 budget, a rash and imprudent decision that jeopardizes the sexual health of America’s youth," she said. "The positive outcomes of this study provide President Obama important data for his 2011 budget recommendation to Congress. We urge a crucial course adjustment in funding so that abstinence-centered education can continue to work to reach teens."

Conservative writer Robert Rector also commented on the new report at National Review.

While abstinence helped students, he wrote: "By contrast, safe sex (promoting only contraceptive use) and comprehensive sex ed (teaching both abstinence and contraceptive use) programs didn't affect youth behavior at all. Students in these programs showed no reduction in sexual activity and no increase in contraceptive use, in either the short or long term."

"Employing state-of-the-art evaluation techniques, the study used random assignment to place students into four groups: a group that received instruction solely in abstinence; a safe-sex group instructed in contraceptive use; a comprehensive, or mixed message, group taught both abstinence and contraceptive use; and a control group that received health education unrelated to sex," he noted.

Students in the abstinence program were one third less likely to initiate sexual activity when compared to students in the other three groups. They also were not less likely to use condoms if they did become sexually active.

"By contrast, safe sex and comprehensive sex-ed classes had no effect on student behavior; students in these classes did not reduce sexual activity nor increase contraceptive use when compared to the control group," Rector said.

The study was conducted by Drs. John and Loretta Jemmott of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Prior to the current study, there had been 15 scientific evaluations of abstinence education, 11 of which had shown that abstinence programs were effective in reducing sexual activity," Rector noted. "However, the new Jemmott study is the first evaluation showing positive results which employed full random assignment. As a result, it cannot be dismissed on methodological grounds."

Whaddaya know? Teach kids not to have sex and the pregnancy rate goes down, who'd a thunk it?

4 comments:

Teresa said...

This is a great study! Of course, its a no brainer also. It is obvious abstaining from sexual activity is a 100% fullproof way of avoiding pregnancy. Abstinence needs to replace the public schools sex education programs.

Unknown said...

I can state with absolute certainty that any time I abstained from having sex I did not get a girl pregnant and I did not contract an STD. I also have three wonderful reminders of what happens when my wife and I did NOT abstain from having sex. Seems fairly simple to me.

Cut and Shoot said...

In the long term I just don't think it would work. I was young once, and only strict parents kept me from getting into MORE trouble. The key, in my opinion, is better parenting.

Subvet said...

Teresa, unfortunately we won't see it replace the sex ed programs now in place.

Arby, funny how that works out!

Cut and Shoot, I'll agree that parents have a greater opportunity to influence their kids. Unfortunately even the best parents have to let their kids be exposed to our current culture. So an added emphasis on chastity in the sex ed classes could only help.

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