Abstinence Only Programs Are A Disaster
By Keith Shirey
7/17/06

In The United States, religion is a kind of "sacred cow."  Criticizing the religious beliefs of a person or group is often seen as just as wrong as being a racist or bigot.  But should religion be beyond critical evaluation?

We all know that many wars have been fought in the name of God.  Certainly, when opposing sides both claim that God is on their side, they both can¹t be right.  Too, we would certainly condemn a notion of militant Jihad, among Islamic extremists, that demands extermination of non-Muslims.  But, although most people who are of the Islamic faith would condemn such a view, millions favor it.

What about Christianity?  Unfortunately Christians have killed Muslims, persecuted, tortured and killed Jews, and have slaughtered one another in the name of God.  Far right Christian fundamentalists can be as zealous as militant Jihadists. Some of them even want a huge war in the Middle East, where millions are killed, so that the "Rapture" will occur and, as they view it, a warrior Jesus will slaughter millions more in the War Of Armageddon!

Remember the bombing of family planning clinics?  Many of them were destroyed, and people killed and maimed, in the name of Jesus, who, of course, preached love and forgiveness!  Many far right Christians would use the government to implement its religious agenda, just as the Taliban did in Afgahanistan.  Dr. Mark Allen Ludwig, author of "True Christan Government," and a right-wing evangelical, writes, ". . . Christians who study the Bible are best qualified to teach the world how it should be governed."

Even as President Bush denounced religious fanaticism abroad, he has nurtured it at home by appointing right wing Christian zealots to key government positions. They have rolled back decades of health and family planning programs that they see as "un-Christian."  They are fanatical zealots when it comes to the subject of sex and the necessity of government to interfere in our sexual lives.  This is particularly true when it comes to teens and the question of sexual abstinence.

As Planned Parenthood points out, the right wing Christians " . . .have won the collaboration of governments and public institutions, from Congress to local school boards, in abridging students' constitutional rights. Schools now block student access to sexual health information in class, at the school library, and through the public library's Internet portals. They violate students' free speech rights by censoring student publications of articles referring to sexuality.  Abstinence-only programs often promote alarmist misinformation about sexual health and force-feed students religious ideology that condemns homosexuality, masturbation, abortion, and contraception. In doing so, they endanger students' sexual health."

With terrible consequences, the curricula of Abstinence Only Sex Ed programs - promoted by the evangelical right winger, President George W. Bush - provides inaccurate information on the effectiveness of condoms including extremely exaggerated failure rates and the false claim that HIV and other pathogens can "pass through" condoms.  Such misinformation results in the increase of sexually transmitted diseases and aids.  This is all done in the name of God!

Abstinence-only sexuality education doesn't work.  There is little evidence that teens who participate in abstinence-only programs abstain from intercourse longer than others.  It is known, however that when they do become sexually active, teens who received abstinence-only education often fail to use condoms or other contraceptives.  In fact, 88 percent of students who pledged virginity in middle school and high school still engage in premarital sex.  The students who break this pledge are less likely to use contraception at first intercourse, and they have similar rates of sexually transmitted infections as non-pledgers.

A study in 2005, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that teens pledging virginity until marriage are more likely to have oral and anal sex than other teens who have not had intercourse. That behavior, however, "puts you at risk," said Hannah Brueckner, assistant professor of sociology at Yale and one of the study's authors.

I agree with Jessica Arons, Legal Policy Associate for the Women¹s Health Program at the Center for American Progress, who writes, "I would like to see sex education be based on medically accurate information instead of distortions and fear," she said. "Teaching the benefits of postponing sex is very important and should certainly be part of any sex education class [but] sex education needs to be medically accurate and it needs to help all the students‹even those who decide to have sex."

What is behind the Christian Right¹s attack on sex education?  One observer, Gloria Feldt writes that "...extreme prudishness is still around today, as it always has been,  in the form of people who can't tell the difference between medical information and pornography, between healthy sexuality and promiscuity."

Perhaps there is more to it.  A reading of radical right "Christian" literature leads to the conclusion that much of their opposition to sex education and birth control is a notion that people should be cruelly punished for their sins because their loving God demands it! They say that fornicators should be scourged by getting syphilis, genital herpes, STD's and by being compelled to carry unwanted embryos to term (even in the case of rape and incest).  Too, echoing the ideas of medieval monks the concept is frequently advanced that sex should not be connected with pleasure, but should only be for the purpose of procreation.  As one right wing Christian expressed it, "I would like to outlaw contraception... contraception is disgusting --people using each other for pleasure."  This is Joseph Scheidler, Pro-Life Acton League talking.

Religion Should not be beyond criticism, particularly in the United States, where there should be ³a high wall of separation² between religion and state.  We do not have the Islamic Taliban running this country.  But there is a Christian Taliban who would like to impose its will on the rest of us. Their "abstinence only" policy is a disaster that has caused much suffering and even death.