Just Say (oh) Noooooo

The Washington Post reports: Abstinence program partners Chinese officials with U.S. evangelicals

If all goes according to plan, this fall a girl somewhere in China's Yunnan Province will tell her boyfriend she can't have sex with him. And he'll have an abstinence program from the United States to thank.

In Yunnan schools this year, teachers are being trained with a sex education curriculum created by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family. The agreement with the Yunnan ministry of education is a milestone for Focus on the Family, which has struggled for four years to make inroads on abstinence in China.

It is also the result of a narrow confluence of interests: Evangelical Christian groups want an entree into China. And Chinese authorities, despite the country's official atheism, want help with controlling population growth and managing the society's rapidly shifting values.

Chinese society has undergone major changes in recent decades, with divorce rates climbing steadily and migration and modernization putting increasing pressure on families, sociologists say. Wading into those waters, Focus on the Family has tried to market its marriage- and family-oriented programs as solutions. But Communist Party officials have been suspicious, at times, of the group's motivations.

At an early demonstration of the abstinence curriculum two years ago - given to the Communist Youth League of China in Hangzhou - teens were supposed to end the seminar by making a virginity pledge, the hallmark of the Christian group's abstinence program. But government officials quickly stepped in, insisting that the kids pledge to no one but the Communist Party.

China has a population problem, and this will only serve to exacerbate it. With China's one child law, expect to see abortion rates skyrocket.

Something else is likely to skyrocket ... the appearance of this bumper sticker on teen cars: "Focus on your own damn family!"

Let's talk about sex

... or how abstinence makes the heart grow fonder!

It's funny -- as in odd, not ha ha -- how religious right conservatives would have you believe that the answer to preventing teen sex is to simply teach kids about abstinence. Well guess what? It still doesn't work!

The Associated Press reports:

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.

"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.

The report, which was based on a review of research into teenager sexual behavior, was being released Wednesday by the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."

"Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavior effect," said the report.

A spending bill before Congress for the Department of Health and Human Services would provide $141 million in assistance for community-based, abstinence-only sex education programs, $4 million more than what President Bush had requested.

Instead of wasting precious time, and tax-payer dollars, wouldn't it be better to simply provide comprehensive sex education to students?

Maybe a way to start would be to encourage teens to watch the Midwest Teen Sex Show! I'm sure it's more educational/beneficial than an abstinence-only program.

Or another idea would be to provide more sports programs for girls. Studies indicate that creating opportunities for girls to play sports can play a key role in reducing teen pregnancy.

We have the information needed to help prevent kids of engaging in sex before they are ready, or to protect themselves when they do. Too bad we don't have an administration, or Congress, willing to accept the truth.

Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder

It seems that abstinence only education, a favorite of the Bush administration, doesn't work. The New York Times reports

Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had sex about the same age as other students — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The next question to ask is, are they using protection?

The federal government spends $176 million a year on public school classes promoting abstinence until marriage. And USA Today reported last year that the government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore. "The government is also targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of it's abstinence-only programs. " Millions of dollars are going into these programs.

"They've stepped over the line of common sense," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education. "To be preaching abstinence when 90% of people are having sex is in essence to lose touch with reality. It's an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health."

Instead of wasting millions of dollars trying to control people's sex lives, why not spend the money on things that actually do make a difference. For example, young girls who participate in school sports are less likely to engage in sexual activity. It helps raise their self esteem and gives them the courage to say no.

And the next thing we need to do is to make it socially unacceptable for anyone to use sexist and racist language to poke fun of young female athletes. Don Imus was a good start.