Abstinence Pledges Dangerous?
October 25th, 2006
Just read an interesting news piece on abstinence sex education and pledges in the US. It noted that 88 percent of pledge takers had sex before marriage and that were less likely to seek STI testing and less likely to use contraception when they did have sex. You can read more about it here.
i remember hearing about that study. it made me really sad that taking the pledge didn’t stop the takers from having sex, it just stopped them from doing it safely because they were too ashamed/afraid of getting caught to seek reliable means of protection.
seriously.
it just seems like such a shame.
That doesn’t surprise me at all. It is sad. I’m not sure how that fits in with teaching absinenece because you believe it’s right though. ‘Tis a tricky one.
Anyway, I must remember that if I have sex to do it safely even if I think I’m doing the wrong thing. Not that that there’s much danger at the moment for me.
It might not be (probably isn’t) the fault of making the pledge. I suspect that people who like the idea of abstinent pledges are the same people who don’t like standing in queues with condoms in their hands. I doubt the checkoutout chick is going to see the condoms and say “Aren’t you the guy who made that pledge! What are you doing buying condoms?”
I have a comment but I’m going to have to blog it. I feel a rant coming on here that is too big for a reply.
onegeekpete.blogspot.com
oh, man. i really want to read pete’s rant but something is wrong with blogger.
i hate it when that happens.