Posted on 11/30/2006 10:56:24 PM PST by 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.
This is the season of "The Nativity Story".
I'm with you.
I did say highly unlikley! ;)
"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.
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.
or Naivity Story.
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.
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:
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.
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.
And the lead actress in that identified with her role a little too closely. ;)
Gosh, a study from PLANNED PARENTHOOD found that pills and condoms are the way to go. Imagine that!
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?
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.
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.
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