Is Ab-Only Sex Ed Effective?
Friday, February 5th, 2010
In case you haven’t heard the news, an abstinence-only sex education program was found to be effective. This is the first time a rigorous study has found any abstinence-only program to have long-lasting, measurable effects. The authors were quick to point out that this is only one study and no policies should be based on it, but I have a feeling that the abstinence-only folks are jumping up and down with joy.
Before they hurt themselves, however, it’s important to take a closer look at the curriculum used in this research. Besides advocating waiting to have sex, this curriculum couldn’t be farther from what most abstinence-only curriculum teaches. Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy pointed out that this curriculum, as opposed to most abstinence-only curriculum “did not advocate abstinence until marriage. The classes also did not portray sex negatively or suggest that condoms are ineffective, and contained only medically accurate information”.




Here’s what’s going on in the blogosphere this week – lots of really fantastic stuff: