Parents Agree: Abstinence education is the best health message for teens. A nationwide Zogby poll conducted in 2007 showed that parents prefer abstinence education 2 to 1 over comprehensive sex education. Among other findings from the poll:

• 9 out of 10 parents agree that being sexually abstinent is best for their child’s health and future.
• 8 in 10 parents support public schools promoting abstinence vs. encouraging contraceptive use.
• 2 out of 3 parents think the importance of the “wait to have sex” message ends up being lost when programs demonstrate and encourage the use of contraception.

Abstinence education works! Abstinence education has received WIDESPREAD federal funding for ONLY ABOUT 10 YEARS, YET, in that short time, numerous peer-reviewed studies have revealed that abstinence programs are effective in:

• Delaying the onset of sexual behavior
• Reversing risky behavior in teens who were previously sexually active
• Reducing teen pregnancy rates
• Decreasing the number of partners in sexually active teens

Current federal funding for abstinence education is nearly $170 million, but the results are a cost-savings to taxpayers! When teen birth rates are reduced, taxpayers save $6 for every $1 spent.

Defining Abstinence Education

Abstinence education empowers teens to avoid risk by making good health decisions, regardless of their sexual history. Abstinence means to voluntarily refrain from sexual activity including, but not limited to, sexual intercourse. Abstinence education, as funded by Congress, is decidedly more inclusive than “just say no”. The term, “abstinence only” is often used by opponents to create the false perception that abstinence education is a narrow and unrealistic approach. Abstinence education is in fact broader and more holistic than other approaches and focuses on the real-life struggles that teens face as they navigate through the difficult adolescent years.

Abstinence education realizes that “having sex” can potentially affect a lot more than the sex organs of teens, but as research shows, can also have emotional, psychological, social, economic and educational consequences. That’s why topics frequently discussed in an abstinence education class include:

• Identifying healthy relationships
• Avoiding or getting out of dangerous, unhealthy, or abusive relationships
• Developing skills to make good decisions
• Setting goals for the future and taking realistic steps to reach them
• Understanding and avoiding STDs
• Information about contraceptives and their effectiveness against pregnancy and STDs
• Practical ways to avoid inappropriate sexual advances
• Why abstinence until marriage is optimal

So, within an abstinence education program, teens receive all the information they need in order to make healthy choices. That’s a lot of information and skills packed into an abstinence curriculum! And all of these topics are taught within the context of why abstinence is the best choice. There’s nothing “only” about the abstinence approach!

What is Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE)?

There are vast differences between abstinence education and CSE. The major distinction is how each approach regards teens. Abstinence education believes teens can and increasingly do, avoid sex, so the discussion empowers them to make the healthiest sexual decision – which is to abstain. By contrast, CSE assumes that teens don’t have the ability to avoid sexual experimentation, so most of their time is spent talking about sex and the use of condoms and other forms of contraception. Comprehensive Sex Education assumes that teens will engage in high risk sexual behavior and are content to merely reduce the risk of that behavior.

A review of CSE curricula show that, on average, only about 5% of their time is devoted to the abstinence message, with the definition of abstinence usually subjectively defined by the student. One popular "abstinence plus" text promoted by comprehensive sex ed providers, asks students to brainstorm "what sexual behaviors a person could engage in and still be 'abstinent'" and suggested activities such as "cuddling with no clothes on", "masturbating with a partner", "rubbing bodies together".

Students are sent nondirective and confusing definitions for abstinence that are filled with risk and predictably, the discussion quickly moves to “the endless possibilities of outercourse” and “making the transition from sexual abstinence.” Alarmingly, CSE curricula present abstinence and condom use as equally “safe” options, promoting dangerous and medically inaccurate information to teens. A 2007 report by the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services (HH found that many highly recommended “comprehensive” curricula devote little time to teaching the merits of abstaining from sex but spend an overwhelming amount of teaching time topics such as condom demonstration and sexual game play as methods of "safe" sex. The study revealed startling components of the "comprehensive" curricula that taught teens as young as 13 lessons that include:

• Advocating showering together as a no-risk activity
• Promoting methods for sexual stimulation
• Conducting role-plays on how to help a partner maintain an erection
• Describing how to eroticize condom use with a partner
• Suggesting teens wear "shades" or disguises when shopping for condoms so parents and adults won't recognize them

Abstinence Under Attack

Organized efforts are underway in every state to replace abstinence education with comprehensive sex education. Parents are being misled by about the true content of comprehensive sex education programs being taught in their children’s classrooms. Expose the truth, your child’s health and future is at stake.