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You pull out some weeds, they just grow back. Tenacious little buggers. Much like Strib editorial positions. Well, they keep growing, I'll keep whacking 'em back.
In an editorial today, the Strib refers yet again to an April report on abstinence it's been holding up like an inflated condom to bolster its view that abstinence instruction is a hopeless cause. See if you can spot the word in this sentence that's a clue to one thing that is at the heart of their objection to abstinence programs.
The president has based this aspect of his health care policy on ideology and theology rather than what is best for teens.
Nick Coleman referred to this April report in a June column. A Strib editorial in July also referred to it.
Says the Strib today:
Scientific evidence, surveys and public opinion call for a new course. Last April, a congressionally mandated evaluation found that younger students who received abstinence instruction were just as likely to have sex later as students who did not get such instruction. Other studies have shown that teens who learn nothing about protecting themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are more likely to get pregnant or catch an STD.
In my post about the Coleman column, I pointed out some things about that report. I'll just repost much of that here, to round out our little discussion.
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Well. For those actually interested in what the study said, you can read it here (PDF). The study looked at just four programs, out of more than 700 nationwide.
The programs served youth living in a mix of urban communities (Miami and Milwaukee) and rural areas (Powhatan, Virginia and Clarksdale, Mississippi). In three of these communities, the youth served were predominantly African-American or Hispanic and from poor, single-parent households. In Powhatan, youth in the programs were mostly white, non-Hispanic youth from working- and middle-class, twoparent households.
These programs focused on upper elementary and middle school youth. Regarding attendance for two of the programs,
In the case of ReCapturing the Vision, program staff identified a set of high-risk girls in the spring of seventh grade and invited them to apply to the program. Once girls applied and were randomly assigned to the program, they could have chosen not to participate in the fall of eighth grade because they either faced scheduling conflicts (such as a required math class) or may have changed their minds and decided o take another elective. This happened for 35 percent of the girls assigned to the program group.
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As a result, many youth assigned to the program group, 43 percent, did not participate in any FUPTP classes. In addition, among those who did participate, only a fraction attended most or all of the classes that were available. Specifically, among the 57 percent of program group youth with any participation, only 11 percent attended more than 80 percent of program services in the first year and 45 percent attended more than half.
And finally, here's the key.
Using data from a final follow-up survey, collected an average of five years after youth enrolled in the study sample...
So, got it? Some upper elementary and middle schools went through some abstinence programs, and attendance was low in some cases, these kids did not have consistent follow up programs throughout high school, and five years later, the study came back to check up on them, and amazingly enough, kids were sexually active.
And Nick Coleman uses this to claim abstinence programs are not effective.
Anyone here expect kids to have a life changing experience based on some school program in junior high, while left to fend for themselves in the pressures and social influences of high school? This study said nothing about parental involvement, or the effects of religious beliefs.
What's more, this chart from the Abstinence Clearinghouse lists fifteen studies showing abstinence education is effective in reducing teen sexual activity.
This Heritage Foundation article said:
Young women who take a virginity pledge are about 40 percent less likely to have a child out of wedlock when compared to similar young women who do not make such a pledge, according to recently released data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
In this column, Janice Shaw Crouse wrote:
One study of a D.C.-area program found that girls in the abstinence program were seven times less likely to engage in sexual activity than those who were not in the program.
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For instance, the Journal of Research on Adolescence just published the results of a survey covering 1,052 inner-city adolescents. A team of pediatricians at New York City's Albert Einstein College of Medicine conducted the research and found that abstinent students have a stronger academic profile, while those who engage in sexual experimentation are more likely to exhibit academic and behavioral pathologies. The non-abstinent students were more likely to earn low grades, drop out of high school and experiment with drug and alcohol use.
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The big story, however, is the trends revealed in the official data indicating dramatic and remarkable demographic changes that coincide with the broader use of abstinence-only programs across the nation. Official government statistics show reversals in trend lines that were resistant to change prior to the availability of abstinence-only programs. These data are available, but hardly anyone is paying attention; certainly, the following three trends aren't making the headlines –– and they should. The Centers for Disease Control reports that teen sexual activity has decreased; the downturn is especially dramatic among black teens –– dropping from 81.4 percent in 1991 to 67.6 percent in 2005 (see Figure 1 below). Among Hispanics, the drop is relatively small but in the right direction –– from 53.1 to 51.0. Among whites, the reversal of the trend is important because the number has stayed below 50 percent since the mid-90s and now is at 43.0 percent.
Do you think Coleman will conduct a comprehensive survey of the research, compare methodologies, etc... before he leaps to a conclusion about the effectiveness of abstinence education? I'm not holding my breath.
Instead, Coleman predictably pleads that sex education be turned over to the schools, where the little hedonists can be taught they're going to go at it like rabbits anyway, and teachers might as well be flinging free condoms around the room like frisbees.
Parents, it's our job to teach our kids about sex, and to protect them from a society that tells them to do whatever they want. |
