Right message for teenagers is abstinence

RALEIGH -- Should North Carolina continue to accept federal funding to teach abstinence education in our public schools? It's hard to believe that anyone could ask such a question, or that it needs an answer. However, if we've reached a point where we must justify the expectation that our children will wait until they are married to have sex, then answer we must.

Despite charges that abstinence education is ineffective, there is much evidence to suggest that it works. The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org) regularly provides updates on the success stories about abstinence education programs around the country. In fact, the latest governor to reject federal abstinence education money, Virginia's Tim Kaine, is about to be faced with an embarrassing report. In Virginia, a study to be published in the January/ February edition of American Journal for Health Behavior has found a significant link between teaching abstinence and a lower risk of sexual initiation. This is one of many studies to find this.

In North Carolina, public school parents overwhelmingly support the teaching of "abstinence until marriage" education. The N.C. Parent Opinion Survey of Public School Sexuality Education shows 91.2 percent of parents find the teaching of "abstinence until marriage" to be very important or somewhat important. Only 1.5 percent oppose teaching it. A 2007 Zogby International Poll found similar sentiments nationwide. Eight out of 10 parents support abstinence education over the alternative, "comprehensive sex education."

Comprehensive sex education has found little support among parents. The 2007 Zogby poll found that when parents are provided with the specific information on what is taught, they overwhelmingly reject the major themes. Comprehensive sex education promotes sexual freedom for adolescents and then relies on condoms and other contraceptives to help negate the consequences that result.

Here are a few examples from Reducing the Risk, a comprehensive sex education curriculum:

* Students are instructed to take a tour of a local family planning clinic that provides contraceptives (and may offer abortions). They are encouraged to do so with their boyfriends or girlfriends, even if they are not in the class with them.

* Students are told to visit a local drug store and list the different kinds of condoms sold there. They are to write down the operating hours of the store in case they need to buy a condom at a late hour.

* Students are told to plan how they will obtain and use condoms and contraceptive foam. A worksheet is provided for them about related questions, including the most romantic way to use these items.

* Students are given suggestions for expressing their affection without having sexual intercourse, including bathing together, mutual massage and other ideas not suitable for a family newspaper.

Abstinence education is not "Just say no." Effective abstinence education incorporates information -- as mandated by existing state law -- about STDs, including HIV/AIDS, along with risk factors and strategies for avoiding these diseases. Students are told the truth about the in-use failure rate of condoms and that condoms are not 100 percent effective against STDs, AIDS and pregnancy.

Young people are also given a hope-filled message about why waiting until marriage to have sex is best for their lives and how to communicate this to those who are pressuring them to have sex. They are taught that sex is more than just a physical act, but that mental, emotional, financial and spiritual factors should be considered.

Faced with all of this evidence, I join the majority of parents in this nation who want more funding, not less, for teaching our children the value of remaining abstinent until marriage. I reject the comprehensive sex education philosophy that embraces guilt-free sex among our young people.

As the mother of a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old, I want as much money as possible going to a curriculum that teaches about STDs, birth control and sex in a manner that will encourage school-aged children to wait until they are married to have sex.

(Traci Griggs is a former abstinence educator and serves on the board of LifeCare Pregnancy Center in Raleigh.)