AIDS Action Committee’s Blog

The Truth About Abstinence Only Education

Blog Category: action, advocacy, HIV prevention, policy — Blogged by: Deborah on February 15, 2007 at 2:55 pm

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT: last week the Bush Administration saw fit to increase funding for abstinence –only-until-marriage programming by 28 million dollars while simultaneously eviscerating healthcare funding for poor children. That means our government is putting kids at greater risk of HIV/AIDS, pregnancy and cervical cancer but is taking resources away from the very programs that will help these kids when they get sick and/or pregnant.

Young people need access to comprehensive health and sexuality education to make responsible decisions, prevent disease, and reduce unintended pregnancies so that they can lead healthy lives. Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs masquerade as education but in fact promote sexual ignorance. As a member of the AIDS community -and a new mother- I think that abstinence is a very important choice for young people. But it must not be presented in such a way that the health and well-being of young people are placed at greater risk.

For example, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs promote ambivalence about the efficacy of condoms. Under federal guidelines, these programs are prohibited from even discussing condoms except to emphasize their failure rates. Public Health professionals have spent the last 25 years trying to convince sexually active people of any age to use condoms to protect themselves. Besides – there is no evidence that these programs work. In fact, they have not been proven to delay the initiation of sexual activity, reduce the frequency of sex or the number of partners. To have the progress against the spread of HIV/AIDS undermined by programs that put ideology ahead of safety and health is heartbreaking and unconscionable.

Massachusetts currently accepts federal abstinence-only-until-marriage funds. We must join California, Maine and New Jersey and halt use of these funds immediately and reject any further funding. The health and well being of our young people depend upon it.

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4 Comments »

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Comment by Ashley

February 15, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

Agreed. Agreed. Agreed.

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Comment by Bradford McIntyre

February 15, 2007 @ 5:45 pm

You have covered this issue wonderfully well!

How sad that the Bush government not only fails to understand HIV and AIDS issues but the policies are actually fueling the spread of HIV; instead of helping to put a stop to them!

Anyone who engages in sexual activity without a condom is at risk of being infected with HIV!

And we know from the earlier years when there were no drugs to treat HIV, that the use of condoms reduced HIV infections nearly to non existent. With the advent of drugs and lives saved, people have ignored the warnings of HIV infection and the need to use a condom. If condoms were a mainstay, we would not have over 43 million people infected with HIV. And I say 43 million, because the real numbers of HIV infection are not being told due to the fact that a large number of people are not even aware they are infected!

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Comment by Matt B.

February 20, 2007 @ 12:28 pm

Well said Deb. I applaud and support this initiative!

I remember as a kid being told that I should not talk to other students during class time because I would get in trouble.

I remember being told that I should not eat snacks before dinner, or they would spoil my appetite.

Perhaps what I most remember about these “rules” situationally is that I would somewhat routinely break them. There is a lot of things that people might be safer not doing; speeding and/or driving aggressively, for instance. There are even laws to forbid speeding, yet millions of people do it routinely. What does that tell us?

Being taught we should not do something is simply not enough. So, in addition to telling kids they shouldn’t eat snacks before dinner, we also teach them about healthy snacks. We teach people to wear seatbelts to protect them in case of an accident. We know realistically that many people are going to do it anyway. Why is it, then, that rather than encouraging teaching all of the options to protect people from STIs and HIV, there is this kind of push to teach the one that is most likely to fail? Clearly something is out of whack here.

The irony of the situation is that while these programs will teach about condom failure rates, they will not teach about their own.

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Comment by Karen Rayne

April 4, 2007 @ 6:11 am

Thank you for your astute discussion of this issue. The is compounded, of course, when parents are not comfortable enough or educated enough to have their own discussions about acceptive sexual behavior with their children.

Karen Rayne
adolescentsexualitytoday.blogspot.com

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