READER'S VIEW: Abstinence education creates safe and healthy teenagers

A recent Reader's View by Rebecca Poedy of Planned Parenthood applauded Idaho's rejection of federal funds for abstinence education. While Planned Parenthood's position is not surprising considering that it stands to benefit financially from such decisions, the reduction of funds for abstinence-based programs constitutes a tragic loss for our youth.

Contrary to Ms. Poedy's comments, abstinence-based programs are effective, and parents overwhelmingly support them. Here are the facts:

In April, The Heritage Foundation issued an analysis of 15 abstinence education programs which found that 11 (73 percent) yielded positive results. Another study published in February concluded Virginia students who receive abstinence education are almost 50 percent less likely to initiate sex.

Last year the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released its review of nine frequently used "comprehensive" (i.e., non-abstinence based) sex education programs. Of the eight programs for which evaluations of their results existed, only two (25 percent) showed "some positive impacts on the delay of sexual initiation." The ACF's report further concluded that "most often the (positive) impacts do not extend three to six months after a curriculum has been used."

The ACF report further found that while "comprehensive" programs purport to also teach abstinence, in reality, contraceptive use and "safe-sex" predominate. The "most balanced" comprehensive program still taught contraceptive use "nearly seven times more than abstinence."

Social science data establish that teens who abstain from sex are less likely to be depressed, commit suicide or live in poverty as an adult. As adults, they also tend to have more stable and enduring marriages.

A Zogby poll conducted last year of 1,002 parents of teens found that once parents were told what abstinence education actually teaches, six out of 10 would rather have their child receive abstinence-based education while only three out of 10 preferred "comprehensive" sex education.

The Mathematica study, cited by Ms. Poedy as evidence that participants in abstinence-based programs have just as many sexual partners as nonparticipants, has been strongly discredited. That study only looked at a few programs where the children were too young (ages 9 to 11) to absorb the abstinence message and there was no additional abstinence education between age 11 and four to six years later when they were surveyed in high school about their sexual activity.

"Comprehensive" sex education programs receive 10 to 12 times as much government funding as do abstinence programs, yet among our youth the rates of teen births and sexually transmitted diseases are rising. Advocates of comprehensive sex education want even more money thrown at these unsuccessful programs.

Why do those promoting "comprehensive" sex education such as Planned Parenthood hope that all funding for abstinence programs will end? What's so terrible about instilling in our youth the importance of abstaining from sex until marriage?

Values. That's the real problem. Abstinence education programs emphasize certain values related to fidelity, marriage, and character. For example, the federal Title V guidelines for abstinence programs include teaching that "a mutually faithful, monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity."

Which is better? Sex education programs for children that are based on a "values-neutral, anything goes, just use protection" approach (and if it doesn't work, then visit the nationwide leader in abortions, Planned Parenthood)? Or programs that are the only ones that can be 100 percent effective and which instill lifelong character traits like fidelity, self-worth, respecting others, and self-discipline?

Less funding for abstinence-based programs may be a win-win for Planned Parenthood, but it's a sad loss for Idaho's youth.

Douglas K. Barth is the executive director of Cornerstone Family Council (Cornerstone Institute of Idaho), a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and strengthening families throughout Idaho. Cornerstone's address is P.O. Box 563, Eagle, ID 83616. Its Web site is www.cornerstoneofidaho.org.