Democratic Planks

New Language: Education Lowers the Abortion Rate, Abstinence-Only Programs Increase It

As Clinton said, abortion should be legal and rare.

To me, it is incomprehensible that the same people who want to outlaw abortion because it is so wrong (and it is a worst-case scenario, no matter which side you are on), also prevent our clearly sexually-active youth from learning how to prevent pregnancy. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized country--twice that of the UK.

People who promote abstinence-only "education" are actively harming our teenage population!

It has been shown through years of research that teenagers exposed only to "abstinence education" acquire STDs at a higher rate than others. (Kirby D, Emerging Answers: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy, Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2001.)

Moreover, abstinence-only education has never been proven to have any significant effect on the rate at which teens become sexually active. In contrast, according to the Surgeon General, sex-ed that includes instruction in the proper use of contraception HAS been proven to:

• delay the onset of sexual activity in teenagers
• reduce their number of sexual partners
  
• increase contraceptive use when they become sexually active
  
  (Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior, former Surgeon General David Satcher, June 2001)
  

Thankfully, teenage pregnancy is declining, and studies have shown that 25% of this decrease is due to "delayed onset of sexual intercourse" and the remaining 75% of the decline can be attributed to "the increased use of highly effective and long-acting contraceptive methods among sexually experienced teenagers." (AGI, Why is Teenage Pregnancy Declining? The Roles of Abstinence, Sexual Activity and Contraceptive Use, New York, AGI, 1999.) Note that 0% of the decline in teen pregnancy can be traced to abstinence. Perhaps this is because abstinence education has not been proven to in any way increase the actual practice of abstinence (see above)!

This data, as noted, has been available for the great majority of the current administration, yet they continue to try to remove comprehensive sex education and install completely ineffective abstinence messages.

This irresponsible criminally negligent neocon policy can only lead to:

• increased teen pregnancy
• increased rates of STD infection
• ultimately, increased abortions

Abstinence should be advocated, but clearly, that is not enough. Abstinence-only education is like leaving a teenager with a loaded weapon, but not teaching them gun safety. It is criminally negligent, and it is our own teenagers who we are putting in harm's way.

We know what works and what doesn't.

We know that simply leaving to parents to decide has caused a nation-wide epidemic of teen pregnancy that is costing taxpayers millions of dollars and putting a tremendous stress on our medical and childcare systems.

We must reduce teenage pregnancy. And this will have the effect of reducing the number of abortions performed, which we all think is a good thing (Just trying to be clear. There are those that think pro-choicers somehow "like" abortion. Ew! Fuck you!). According to the CDC, 50% of all abortions are performed on teens(18%) and those in their very early 20's. It is shown that education lowers pregnancy rates in this critical demographic, thus...

New Language: Education lowers abortion rates.

Big hat tip to The Alan Guttmacher Institute for much of the data cited above.

posted at 12:27 PM       Permalink
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