"I don't think that word means what you think it means..."
Found this at www.onenewsnow.com:
Abstinence redefined?
A study published this week in the journal Pediatrics says ten percent of teens who said they were abstinent also tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease. But an advocate for abstinence says the sex-education curricula in most schools could be blamed for those numbers.
Of the 964 teens who tested positive for an STD, 118 claimed they had not had sexual intercourse in the last 12 months, and 60 said they had never had intercourse in their lives. The study, based on its findings, recommends that all teens receiving clinical services -- regardless if they self-report as being sexually abstinent -- be tested for prevalent STDs such as gonorrhea and chlamydia.
Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association tells OneNewsNow that 75 percent of young people in America are receiving explicit contraceptive-centered education that defines "abstinence" subjectively. She believes that could be one of the reasons why teens who say they are abstinent have an STD.
"Because in these curricula [teens] are given free rein to define abstinence in any way, including whatever doesn't cause a pregnancy or however they want to define it," she explains. "And we know that there are a lot of behaviors that put them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases."
Huber says the abstinence programs that her organization promotes are very clear about what constitutes safe and unsafe behavior.
"[When we talk about abstinence] we're talking about avoiding all of the activities that put a young person at risk," says the abstinence advocate. "So if they receive the skills and the motivation to truly remain abstinent [as an abstinence program defines it], they have absolutely zero-percent chance of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease."
It is "crazy," she adds, that some would try to redefine abstinence.
If you're wondering where our children get their ideas...
11 comments:
Yeah, I've been getting into an interesting conversation (okay, I'm trolling) at Change.org about Wisconsin covering free contraception etc. Someone tried to cite this study to claim to me that abstinence doesn't work because many teens don't really know what abstinence means.
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/wisconsin_provides_free_birth_control_but_will_republicans_block_access
You might not want to publish this--but I've known teens who used 'frottage' or nude "outercourse" to be "abstinent". As well as the old high school special, mutual masturbation. I also have known people who felt that oral sex wasn't "real sex". Nude "outercourse" will get you anything that intercourse will get you.
The problem is, kids have hormones, no experience and so many messages about how cool it is to do be sexually active, they can't seem to make good decisions.
Personally, the best deterrent I have seen was the fellow who was always cleaning his gun when someone picked up his daughter for a date.
Mike, it figures. Defining "abstinence" as anything BUT vaginal penetration will allow for a lot of problems. They can all then be cited as proof that "abstinence" doesn't work.
IR, I'm not surprised. Revolted but not surprised. Must be a sign of age.
As for the guy with the gun, it doesn't always work. During the time I goofed off at a local community college back in the 90's I found myself tutoring some folks in Algebra. Two of my students, an older man and a girl in her twenties, started a conversation with me regarding dating.
The older guy very gleefully told of how he always was cleaning his guns or knives when his girls brought a date around. He felt that really deterred any hankypanky.
The girl just looked at him. When the older guy left she turned to me and said, "Thats the same crap my old man tried to keep the boys from me. It's why I started screwing anything that wore pants until I met my husband. He wanted to know me first and so we stayed out of bed until we got married."
That was a little TMI for me, I just said something along the lines of, "So let's go cover the quadratic equation now."
And you were staring at that college girl thinking, "Why do I always meet them AFTER they stop screwing around?!"
Arby, since my wife reads this blog I'll just say "once a sub sailor always a sub sailor".
haha, Arby....DON'T give a man in a hole a shovel! ;-) j/k babe
In a relativistic society (like we've got) the definition of a word is 'whatever you think it means'.
The Watcher, all true. Unfortunately it leads to losing all sense of right & wrong.
I just found your blog and I am enjoying reading it.
Initially what caught my eye was the title of this post....love the reference :)
Kelly @http://amomforlife-theunconventionalfamily.blogspot.com/
Kelly, welcome and hope you come back often.
Post a Comment