GN Commentary: January 7, 2009 - Is Abstinence Education the Answer?

If children are not given a strong moral foundation at home, no school program is capable of protecting them from the damaging effects of a morally bankrupt society.

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Video Transcript

My wife and I have never forgotten the day several years ago when we met a nice young lady who had recently turned 16.  Her mother, who worked for Planned Parenthood, had given her a rather unusual birthday gift.  She came home from work, handed her daughter a packet of birth-control pills, and said, "Here.  Go have some fun."  Thankfully, that innocent teenager had a lot more wisdom and character than her mother.

The January, 2009, issue of the journal Pediatrics contained a study from Johns Hopkins purporting to show that "virginity pledges," a frequent component of abstinence-based programs, have little effect on later sexual conduct.  Planned Parenthood and others who oppose abstinence-education have hailed this study as proof positive that such programs don't work.

Well, as the old saying goes, "Figures don't lie, but liars do figure."  Responsible educators have questioned the validity of this study.  For example, any young person who already had a strong moral belief in saving sexual activity for marriage was automatically excluded from the data.  So, while it seems fair to conclude that abstinence-based classes alone did not significantly change their behavior, the author rightly added, "It seems like abstinence has to come from an individual conviction rather than participating in a program."

Let's put that into plain language: If children are not given a strong moral foundation at home, no school program is capable of protecting them from the damaging effects of a morally bankrupt society.

The late newspaper columnist Ann Landers wrote that the pill was the perfect birth-control method when used properly, and explained that the correct way to use it was to place it between your knees and hold it there.  Her point was clear—nothing protects as well as abstinence.  In the thirty years after the introduction of the pill, out-of-wedlock births increased by over 400%.

Do you want to protect your children from the heart break of sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies, and the emotional devastation of having the most intimate and personal of all human relationships drug through the moral gutter?  Then this study has an important message: Either parents give their children the moral foundation they need, or society will lead them down a slippery path to self-destruction.

It's been several years since we've seen that young lady, but the last time we saw her, she introduced us to her husband and let us hold her baby.  She had chosen to save God's gift of sexuality for that one special relationship, and she had no regrets.

For GN Magazine, I'm David Johnson.