Health officials laud abstinence programs in U.S.

Health officials laud abstinence programs in U.S.

A pair of officials with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) defended abstinence education programs in a recent opinion piece. The goal of such programs is to delay teens’ introduction to sexual activity, they wrote, noting that reliable statistics indicate that’s exactly what it takes to reduce teen pregnancies.

Wade Horn, the assistant secretary for children and families within HHS, and Jeffrey Trimbath, director of abstinence education at the HHS’ administration for children and families, wrote “Another Reason for Abstinence,” which was posted on the government’s children and families Web site this summer.

They cite a recent study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which found that if teenagers delay the onset of sexual activity and reduce the number of partners they have, they are much less likely to become pregnant or get someone pregnant compared to those who don’t.

“By definition, abstinence education programs aim to do just that. Through education, mentoring, counseling and peer support, abstinence education services help teens delay the onset of sexual activity and reduce the number of sexual partners they have,” Horn and Trimbath wrote.

The duo said more teens are adopting abstinence as their personal standard, and they used statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make their point.

“[A]ccording to the CDC, the percentage of teens who report that they have had sex has decreased from 54 percent in the early 1990s, to 46 percent today,” Horn and Trimbath wrote. “Just a few short years ago, a majority of teens did not practice abstinence. Now, a majority of teens are abstinent. It just so happens that these trends coincide with increased funding for abstinence education from Washington. Coincidence? We think not.”

The Bush administration has proposed historic increases in abstinence education, and President George W. Bush has personally encouraged teenagers to delay sexual activity, the HHS officials noted.

“Abstinence is the surest way and the only completely effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases,” Bush said in a 2002 speech on welfare reform.

Horn and Trimbath also cited an HHS report from 2005, which found that teens who participated in federally funded abstinence programs showed an “increased awareness of the risks associated with teen sexual behavior, and an increased acceptance of delaying sexual behavior.”

“Of course, more work needs to be done, but these results are promising,” they wrote.  (BP)