Teenagers need guidance on self-control

THE EDITOR: I see many people these days are advocating sex education to children even as young as seven years old, because they think that (a) with detailed sex education we will curb teenage pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), and (b) abstinence education “doesn’t work.” In both cases, they are wrong.  Abstinence (chastity education, not just abstaining from sex) education is the only thing that will work. In the UK in 1999 the British Government introduced a programme for the reduction of teenage pregnancies by assaulting it with free condoms, the “morning after (MA)” pill and sex education. In fact, the result was counterproductive! Areas with the largest increase in “family planning” sessions saw the largest increase in STI rates.

Increased clinic sessions did not lead to larger reductions in teen pregnancies. In some areas, for instance in Oxfordshire, the under-18 pregnancy rate increased 16 percent between 1998 and 2002. Professor David Paton and a team of economists from Nottingham University evaluated the programme. Professor Paton said that the Government had assumed that adolescent sexual activity was the outcome of random decisions. His findings indicated that adolescents becoming sexually active was a rational decision on their parts. When the MA pill was made available free, no reduction in teen pregnancies resulted, but STIs escalated.

Professor Paton added, “Teenage sexual behaviour appears to be little different to other fields that economists have studies in at least one important respect: incentives matter to teenagers too.” In other words, give them the “how to” knowledge, and make contraceptives available, and they will have sex. (Information from The Times, London, April 5, 2004.) What we seem to forget with all this urging for sex education is that we are dealing with young people. People who are vibrant and eager for experience. They need guidance on self-control. They do not need to be told that they are animals operating purely on instinct and so need to “protect” themselves (this is, really, totally insulting to our youth). True protection is chastity education.

JOAN MOORE
Carenage