Abstinence Minus

Widely-used sex education courses advertised as “comprehensive” give fleeting tributes to the value of abstaining from sexual intercourse while providing elaborate descriptions of how to practice contraception, a recent study by the Heritage Foundation shows.

“If you wanted to characterize comprehensive sex education,” Heritage Foundation analyst Robert Rector said at the Washington, D. C. think tank Tuesday, “It’s like Hugh Hefner and a bunch of doctors.” Rector worked on the study with Melissa G. Pardue, also a policy analyst at Heritage, and Shannan Martin, a research assistant there.

The Heritage Foundation research team spent a year analyzing nine commonly-used comprehensive sex education courses and texts and an equal number of “abstinence only” materials. In the comprehensive packages, “Eight of the nine curricula reviewed include either a condom demonstration or a session of condom practice,” the Heritage study, “Comprehensive Sex Education vs. Authentic Abstinence,” concludes.

This trend persists despite evidence that shows that most teens polled on their sexual activity say they wish they had waited. Nine-tenths of parents polled, meanwhile, would like teens to postpone their first encounter until they have completed their secondary education, or even later.

Although 90 percent of parents want their children to abstain from sexual intercourse until they have at least graduated high school, the other 10 percent seem to be designing their sex education courses. “One sentence was frequently the only abstinence content in so-called comprehensive courses,” Rector notes.

Consider some of the texts and materials that Rector and his associates looked at:

• “Condoms are available at any drugstore or family planning clinic,” Reducing The Risk advises high school students. “They may also be available in outdoor or all-night condom vending machines.” Published last year, Reducing The Risk is in its fourth printing.
• “Explain that the next roleplay is about getting and using protection,” Safer Choices instructs high school sex education teachers. “In the roleplay, the couple has had sex before and one person is pressuring the other to continue having sex without protection. Tell students they will complete the half-scripted roleplay individually.” Safer Choices is designed for teens aged 14 to 17.
• “Invite [students] to brainstorm ways to increase spontaneity and the likelihood that they’ll use condoms,” Be Proud! Be Responsible! (1996), instructs teachers. In its fifth printing, this textbook is designed for adolescents.
• “Demonstrate the correct use of condoms and discuss the characteristics of condoms that should be considered when purchasing them,” AIDS Prevention for Adolescents in School commands teachers.
• Teen Talk (1998, for students aged 13-19) gives teachers this helpful bit of advice: “You may blow up a rubber to show how strong they are.”

Rector points out that the federal government spends $12 on contraception promotion(including condom distribution) for every $1 it spends on abstinence education. Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution suggests that the diversion of abstinence-only funding to comprehensive or abstinence-plus programs may not even be legal. Haskins formerly served as staff director of the U. S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.