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WEBSITES
PORNOGRAPHY AND ONLINE PREDATORS
Pornography Affects Girls, Too
SEXUAL HEALTH
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy on Jamie Lynn Spears
Unmarried Births: Does Anybody Care?
Many Adolescents Don’t Know the Law About Sex
HPV Common in Sexually Active Male College Students
Chlamydia Damages Male Fertility
Are Condoms the Answer to Rising Rates of Non-HIV Sexually Transmitted Infections?
READ ON…research and commentary about abstinence education programs around the country…
“Aborting Abstinence” by Robert Rector, National Review Online
Rector offers a critique of the anti-abstinence plan set forth by Senator Max Baucus in light of public support for abstinence education. Rector suggests that certain special interest groups have an influence over lawmakers in deciding on these issues, causing them to make decisions that are not in line with public opinion.
“Abstinence: In the No” by Rebecca Hagelin, Townhall.com
This article suggests that abstinence-only sexual education has helped teens, and is preferable to the comprehensive sex education that treats teenagers as sub-rational.
“The War on Abstinence Education” by Ryan T. Anderson, First Things Magazine
Anderson begins with an anecdote on the resistance that abstinence education programs are meeting with throughout the US, particularly in California. He provides sociological data suggesting that abstinence education is working, or that at the very least, the claim that legislators make (that abstinence only education is ineffective) is not discernable from the information.
“Facts About Abstinence Education” by Robert Rector
In preparation for an (at the time, in 2004) upcoming billdiverting funds from abstinence education programs to “safe sex” programs, Rector presents a list of 14 facts about abstinence education programs, focusing on the benefits of abstinence and the effectiveness of and need for abstinence education programs. Each fact is supported by a study or article further elaborating on his point.
This study assesses the merits of “abstinence plus” sexual education, which is meant to serve as a middle ground between the “safe sex” approach to sexual education programs, which focuses on contraception, and an all abstinence approach, which teaches teens to delay sexual activity. The study found that the traditional abstinence approach was more effective.
Studies have shown that there is a huge discrepancy between the amount of money the government spends on safe sex or abstinence plus sex education programs, which place little or no emphasis on abstinence, and abstinence programs. This is radically opposed to the preferences of American parents, 85% of whom said that the emphasis placed on abstinence should be equal to or greater than that placed on contraception. Despite the risks of early sexual activity, safe sex programs send teens the message that society expects, if not condones, early sexual activity.
This study found that the earlier a woman first engages in sexual activity the more sexual partners she will have. The study then examines the link between early sexual activity and multiple sexual partners and human well-being.
This study found that teenagers who are sexually active are significantly more likely to be depressed or to attempt suicide than those who are not, even when controlled for race, gender, age and family income. Two thirds of those who were sexually active wished they had waited longer before becoming sexually active.
WHAT’S UP IN MINNESOTA & NORTH DAKOTA?
2007 MN Health Standards (Grades 7-10) Aligned with Game Plan & Navigator
2008 ND Health Content & Achievement Standards Grade 7-8
2008 ND Health Content & Achievement Standards Grade 9-12
OTHER
Abstinence Means voluntarily choosing not to engage in sexual activity until marriage.
Sexual Activity Any type of genital contact or sexual stimulation between two people including, but not limited to sexual intercourse.
*Marriage A union between one man and one woman as a husband and wife.
*Spouse A person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.
STD A sexually transmitted disease is any contagious disease that is transmitted through direct person to person sexual contact. Sexually transmitted diseases are contracted through exchange of semen, blood or any other body fluids or by direct sexual contact with the affected body area of an individual who has a sexually transmitted disease.
*Consistent with Federal Law
A-H Federal Guidelines
(make a sound choice follows all of the following guidelines)
Section 912 ‘Abstinence Education’ of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 amends Title V of the Social Security Act including:
SEPARATE PROGRAM FOR ABSTINENCE EDUCATION
Sec.510. (b)(1) The purpose of an allotment under subsection (a) to a State is to enable the State to provide abstinence education, and at the option of the State, where appropriate, mentoring, counseling, and adult supervision to promote abstinence from sexual activity, with a focus on those groups which are most likely to bear children out-of-wedlock.
(2) For purposes of this section, the term ‘abstinence education’ means an educational or motivational program which:
(A) has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
(B) teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school age children;
(C) teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
(D) teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;
(E) teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
(F) teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child?s parents, and society;
(G) teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
(H) teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.
**Disclaimer: Make a Sound Choice is not responsible for the content of items suggested as resources. However, after careful consideration, these suggestions were compiled to provide information and guidance. Please contact us if you find inappropriate or inaccurate information within any suggested resource. Your input is valuable to us!
