The Free Teens USA Perspective On Abstinence Education

The Free Teens USA Perspective On Abstinence Education

Abstinence education is something that has sparked a fair amount of debate and discussion recently. Opposer's of abstinence-only education say that it doesn't work, because people will not remain abstinent. The pro-abstinence education crowd counters that it does work. This article is not an un-biased look at the subject. Rather, it is written from the perspective of information distributed by Free Teens USA, a "reality-based" abstinence education program. After reading this information, you can decide for yourself if it is reality based!

Does Abstinence Only Education Work?

Well, there are lots of answers to this question. But Free Teens USA had already anticipated that question, and had answered it on their website. We found three studies to answer that question.

One study, done by the The Heritage Foundation of Washington DC, found that teens who had taken a virginity pledge were less likely to be sexually active as young adults, less likely to become pregnant out of wedlock, and will have fewer sexual partners.

Another study, performed over four years and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that female students that were exposed to abstinence education at their high school were five times less likely to become pregnant than students not exposed to the education.

So, it would seem that abstinence education works. But preventing pregnancy and STDs is not the only goal of abstinence education programs like Free Teens USA. They also want to encourage teens to save sex for marriage, forgoing the changing, premature sexual relationships they might have before marriage.