With many celebrities such as the winsome young Jonas brothers making public statements about their vows to chastity, many teens choose to wait until marriage to engage in sexual intercouse. On the other hand, Bristol Palin, daughter of vice-presidential candidate, Governer Sarah Palin made news yesterday publicly speaking about having a child at the age of 18., Bristol said, “But I think abstinence is, like — like, the — I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.” (Fox News). Just as these two media views can be confusing to teens who keep up with their favorite celebrities, teaching an abstinence-only message while passing out condoms may puzzle teens as well.
While many teens may wear True Love Waits rings and pledge themselves to purity, they may fall off the straight and narrow in the heat of the moment. In a nationally representative study of adolescents aged 12-17 years, 88 percent of adolescents who took virginity pledges within AOUM programs reported engaging in sexual intercourse before marriage. Additionally, the study reported that adolescents who took virginity pledges were less likely to use condoms when they became sexually active, more likely to engage in oral-genital and anogenital sexual behaviors, and less likely to seek and obtain care for STIs than non-pledgers (APHA). The moral message of Abstinence will always remain the same, but it is a personal choice. Sexual education must be there to catch teens when they fall. Kids need to know the facts and the consequences of pre-marital sex. If they are going to have sex, they must have safe sex to protect their health.
In a perfect world, educators would teach abstinence-only, and all teens would abide to the rules. The reality is, that the majority of teens are going to have sex before they graduate from high school. This is why it is imperative to promote programs that cover all the grounds regarding teens and sex. These programs must touch on abstinence as the ideal, but they must also give students the tools to protect themselves when they are not choosing abstinence.
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1 response so far ↓
lhuff // February 18, 2009 at 7:50 pm
You say: “In a nationally representative study …”
I say: You must include a parenthetical citation at end of sentence to reveal the source of this study. Don’t wait until the end of the next sentence.
Excellent argument you make! I love the intellectual quote by Palin’s daughter.