Success of abstinence in cutting teen pregnancies is a 'myth'

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 01/12/2006 | Sarah Womack

[Mrs Ivan]

Sexual abstinence as an effective tool in reducing teenage pregnancy is a complete "myth", the Government's advisory body on the issue claimed yesterday.

The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy said that research from the United States showed that contraception was the way to bring down rates. Researchers from Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute examined the relative roles of abstinence and contraceptive use in the "remarkable decline" in US teenage pregnancy rates, which dropped 27 per cent from 1991 to 2000. They said that 86 per cent of the decline in teenage pregnancy was due to improved use of contraception.

Only 14 per cent of the drop amongst 15- to 19-year-olds was linked to reduced sexual activity, according to the study, published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Public Health

Gill Frances, the chairman of the British advisory group, said: "Providing young people with good information, advice and contraceptive services, is the way to reduce teenage pregnancy.

"It is a myth that abstinence is a better approach and this US study confirms it."

Her group's comments provoked a furious response from those who believe that it is better to encourage young people to abstain from sex until they are older, or even until they are married.

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said that in its zeal to promote contraception as the mark of sexual responsibility, the sex education establishment had "cheapened sex and lost sight of its purpose as an expression of the total self-giving of a husband and wife to each other in the context of life-long marriage". He said: "Parents have a major part to play in protecting their children from sexual imagery in the media and mitigating peer pressure, but their role is being severely hampered by Government policy."

In Britain, experts say that the Government missed its target of cutting the under-18 pregnancy rate by 15 per cent from its 1998 level in spite of the £150 million campaign to reduce pregnancies among young girls. It was also likely to miss its target of halving teenage pregnancies by 2010, probably achieving a reduction of about 17 per cent.

[Mrs Ivan]

Funny, there was me thinking that teenage girls who do not have sex are highly unlikely to get pregnant.

[glorgau]

This is the season of "The Nativity Story".

[sageb1]

I'm with you.

[Mrs Ivan]

This is the season of "The Nativity Story".

I did say highly unlikley! ;)

[WOSG]

"Only 14 per cent of the drop amongst 15- to 19-year-olds was linked to reduced sexual activity"

IT'S A MYTH THAT 14% OF SOMETHING BIG IS THE SAME AS ZERO.

What a bunch of putzes. Nevermind that the planned parenthood arm the Guttmacher folks did the study (GIGO alert!), and they might be likely to skew it. That data *DOES* show that lower sexual activity had an impact.

To call it a myth is itself a myth, or a lie.

[SoldierDad]

"It is a myth that abstinence is a better approach and this US study confirms it."

Let me see if I have this correct. Girls who have sex, but use contraceptives are less likely to get pregnant than girls who don't have sex? Boy, that's just facinating to beat all.

[publana]

or Naivity Story.

[taxesareforever]

Sexual abstinence as an effective tool in reducing teenage pregnancy is a complete "myth",

This statement is so assinine it has to come from a government agency. What is a "myth" is to say that government has the right answers.

[dayglored]

> Let me see if I have this correct. Girls who have sex, but use contraceptives are less likely to get pregnant than girls who don't have sex? Boy, that's just facinating to beat all.

Well, we all agree that that simply CANNOT be right, on the face of it.

So I'm going to bet that their study does not restrict itself to COMPLETE abstinence from all sexual activity (which would have the obvious 100% pregnancy prevention rate, save for the Virgin Mary).

Rather, look and see if "abstinence" in their study is allowed to include:

• Partial abstinence, as in, "We screwed on Saturday but we abstained the rest of the week."
• Mutual oral and/or masturbatory sex, which when done sloppily (sorry) can result in semen ending up in all the wrong places even without coital penetration.
• The TEACHING of abstinence, which is very different from the PRACTICE of abstinence.

In other words, in common usage, the term "abstinence" often covers much more ground than simply "not doing the old in-and-out". It's not just BJ Clinton who believes that "eatin' ain't cheatin'".

[drellberg]

ROFL ... My goodness, so many people are breathtakingly stupid. And not just the reporter who writes it, the editor that accepts it, the publisher that prints it, or the co-workers at the dinasaur media who must surely scrutinize their own product. Forget internal quality control. So many folks buy and read this stuff and do not stop to think, "Huh?"

Mindboggling.

[knarf]

Really.

First of all, it's a lefty, UK publication .. attempting to discredit an American statistic.

Secondly, It is an excellent lesson in yellow journalism ... look here;

"They said that 86 per cent of the decline in teenage pregnancy was due to improved use of contraception."

.. is the last sentence of a paragraph, followed by the first sentence in the next paragraph;

"Only 14 per cent of the drop amongst 15- to 19-year-olds was linked to reduced sexual activity, according to the study, published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Public Health"

...mixing the two numbers together to make lesser number a loser compared to a larger number.

Thirdly, The lesser/larger comparison is apples and oranges .. the apples being used to set up the false impression, the oranges used to better support the intention that (in this case) the statistic is a lie, therefore any program(s) that produce this result is/are a failure and thus must be eliminated.

Socialists want power, money and the position of master over slaves.

I'm Sparticus.

[Chewie84]

Another thing I noticed is that in the article, when discussing abstinence, it mentions the specific age range (15-19 years old), yet when discussing contraception, they just make the general statement of 'teenage pregnancy,' so the study could have possibly left 13 and 14- year- olds out of the abstinence part.

[linda_22003]

And the lead actress in that identified with her role a little too closely. ;)

[madprof98]

Researchers from Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute examined . . .

Gosh, a study from PLANNED PARENTHOOD found that pills and condoms are the way to go. Imagine that!

[joebuck]

"Sexual abstinence as an effective tool in reducing teenage pregnancy is a complete "myth"

I dunno, I'm pretty sure it's 100% effective all the time. Or has there been a change in biology I'm completely unaware of?

[lastchance]

I can not believe you have not heard of the pregnancy fairy. She travels with her magic wand and any teenage girl who is not on contraceptives is zapped and VIOLA baby time.

[WV Mountain Mama]

I guess I am also one of the sheeple who thought that not having sex would prevent pregnancy. Silly me.

[martianna]

I think this article is poorly written. Abstinence, when practiced, is effective 100% of the time. Perhaps what the article is trying to say is that the teens in the study were less likely to practice abstinence and instead chose to have sex with the use of some sort of contraceptive.

I have mixed feelings on this. Just the other day, my neighbor's 15 year old son asked his Mother to buy him some condoms. (Can't IMAGINE asking my Mother that - but that's another story!) Anyway, her answer was a flat out "NO!". Do I think he's going to have sex anyway? Yes I do - with or without a condom. We can hope he will think of the consequences and restrain himself but he's a walking hormone right now and teenagers often have the perceived notion of invincibility. "It won't happen to me".

I would hate to see this young man give up his dreams of going to college and enjoying that time in his life because of a poor decision. At least he came to his parents and talked to them about it - which is a positive sign but obviously, it is something he's considering.

Just curious as to what you would do? Would you slip some condoms in his dresser? Or pray to God he doesn't do what he's thinking of doing... I'm not so sure myself.

[P-Marlowe]

When I was in high school we had maybe 2 or 3 girls out of 1000 who had to drop out of school because of pregnancy (and back then they did not allow you to come to school pregnant). Then the schools decided it was time to teach students sex education in order to stop the (non-existent) epidemic of pregnancies. These days if you go to a high school it is not unusual to see dozens of young girls walking around campus visibly pregnant or dropping their little bastard children off at day care.

The most effective method of contraception among young people is ... SHAME.

But these days high school kids are proud that they are stupid enough to get pregnant at 16.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Next we will be told that abstinence does not prevent Sexually transmitted diseases.