Editing Sexual abstinence (section)

=== Abstinence-only sex education in the United States ===
Abstinence-only sex education is a form of sex education that teaches abstinence from sex, and often excludes many other types of sexual and reproductive health education, particularly regarding birth control and safe sex. Education programs which focus exclusively on abstinence have hardly been shown to delay sexual activity.<ref>[http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/5/gr060504.html The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041209224817/http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/5/gr060504.html |date=9 December 2004 }} December 2003, Volume 6, Number 5 By Cynthia Dailard</ref> Such programs promote sexual abstinence until marriage and often also condemn the use of contraceptives as an alternative. [[Comprehensive sex education]], by contrast, covers the use of contraceptives as well as abstinence.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Comprehensive sexuality education|url=https://www.unfpa.org/comprehensive-sexuality-education|access-date=2021-10-23|website=United Nations Population Fund|language=en}}</ref>

Organizations such as [[SIECUS]] have called abstinence-only programs "fear-based," and "designed to control young people's sexual behavior by instilling fear, shame, and guilt."<ref>[http://www.siecus.org/pubs/tsha_scaredchaste.pdf 6-SHA2_Interior<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513043100/http://www.siecus.org/pubs/tsha_scaredchaste.pdf |date=13 May 2008 }}</ref> Author [[Judith Levine]] has argued that there might be a natural tendency of abstinence educators to escalate their messages: "Like advertising, which must continually jack up its seduction just to stay visible as other advertising proliferates, abstinence education had to make sex scarier and scarier and, at the same time, [[chastity]] sweeter."<ref>[[Harmful to Minors]]</ref>

In spite of these criticisms, federal government support has made abstinence the [[de facto]] focus of sex education in the [[United States]], so that opponents frequently adopt the line that abstinence education is acceptable only if it is combined with other methods, such as instruction in the use of condoms, and easy availability thereof. Most nations of [[Western Europe]] use more comprehensive measures, and in sharp contrast to the heated discussion in the U.S., abstinence is hardly discussed as an educational measure.{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}}

A [[U.S. federal government]]-promoted [[abstinence]]-only program was aimed at teens in 1981 in order to discourage premarital sex and unwanted pregnancies. However, recent studies conducted by Mathematica Policy Research showed ineffectiveness of this program.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-07-03|title=Evaluation of Abstinence Education Programs Funded Under Title V, Section 510|url=http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/Family_Support/abstinence.asp|access-date=2020-12-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703152443/http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/Family_Support/abstinence.asp|archive-date=3 July 2014}}</ref> The Responsible Education About Life Act was introduced by Senator [[Frank Lautenberg]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[New Jersey|NJ]]) and Representatives [[Barbara Lee]] (D-[[California|CA]]) and [[Christopher Shays]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]-[[Connecticut|CT]]) to support age-appropriate sexual education. This program is focused to provide teenagers with science-based information on sexual health, so that they can make a sound decision regarding their sex-life.<ref>[http://info.xxx-sextoys.net/post/congress-abstinence.html Congress changed its mind on abstinence] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025082806/http://info.xxx-sextoys.net/post/congress-abstinence.html |date=25 October 2009 }}</ref>

In 2006, the [[George W. Bush]] [[Presidency of George W. Bush|administration]] expanded abstinence programs from teens to adults, by introducing programs to encourage unmarried adults to remain abstinent until marriage.<ref>New Bush Administration Policy Promotes Abstinence Until Marriage Among People in their 20s, Guttmacher Policy Review 2006, Volume 9, Number 4. Available online at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/09/4/gpr090423.html</ref> Family-planning advocates and researchers denounced the program as unrealistic, due to the rising age of first-time marriage in the United States.<ref>Boerner, Heather. Questioning Abstinence Until Marriage. Available online at {{cite web|url=http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/teen-pregnancy-sex-education/premarital-sex-13377.htm |title=Planned Parenthood Questioning Abstinence Until Marriage - |access-date=2 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113134804/http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/teen-pregnancy-sex-education/premarital-sex-13377.htm |archive-date=13 January 2008 }}</ref> In 2009, the [[Barack Obama]] [[Presidency of Barack Obama|administration]] removed most of the funding from sexual-abstinence education, and instead used the money to fund the Office of Adolescent Health, designed to prevent [[teenage pregnancy]] through evidence-based programs.<ref>
{{cite journal |author=Jessica Fields |date=2012 |title=Sexuality Education in the United States: Shared Cultural Ideas across a Political Divide |journal = Sociology Compass |volume = 6 |issue = 1 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00436.x}}</ref> During the Obama administration, between the years 2007 and 2017, the teen pregnancy rate in the US dropped by 50%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/why-the-federal-teen-pregnancy-prevention-programs-fate-is-uncertain| title = Why the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program's fate is uncertain {{!}} PBS NewsHour| website = [[PBS]]| date = 22 March 2018}}</ref>

==== Popularity and effectiveness ====
{{See also|Sex education}}
The advent of [[AIDS]] helped build a more favorable view of abstinence. However, a review of 13 U.S. sex-abstinence programs involving over 15,000 people by Oxford University found that they do not stop [[risky sexual behavior]], or help in the prevention of unwanted pregnancy.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6927733.stm|title=No-sex programmes 'not working'|work=BBC News|date=2 August 2007|access-date=17 March 2009}}</ref> Other studies have found that abstinence-only education does little to affect the "age of sexual initiation; number of sexual partners; and rates of sexual abstinence, condom use, vaginal sex, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)".<ref>
{{cite journal |author=Abby Wilkerson |date=March 2013 |title=I Want to Hold Your Hand: Abstinence Curricula, Bioethics, and the Silencing of Desire |journal = Journal of Medical Humanities |volume = 34 |issue = 2 |pages=101–108 |doi=10.1007/s10912-013-9213-0 |pmid=23468394|s2cid=35152974 }}</ref> Recently, the United States Congress also found similar results in a study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research on abstinence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/PDFs/impactabstinence.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-06-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613193447/http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/PDFs/impactabstinence.pdf |archive-date=13 June 2007 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Currently, there are also issues as to what abstinence means: is it an abstinence from sexual intercourse, or from sexual behavior? Movements such as [[True Love Waits (organization)|True Love Waits]] in America, which ask teenagers to refrain from sex before marriage, are heavily subscribed, but surveys of sexual behavior indicate an increase in the popularity of oral sex.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Lisa Remez |date=Nov–Dec 2000 |title=Oral Sex among Adolescents: Is It Sex or Is It Abstinence? |journal=Family Planning Perspectives |volume=32 |issue=6 |pages=298–304 |url=http://www.znetwork.org/0007.htm |doi=10.2307/2648199 |pmid=11138867 |jstor=2648199 |publisher=Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 32, No. 6 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20050421032424/http://www.znetwork.org/0007.htm |archive-date=21 April 2005 }}</ref>

{{as of|2017}}, "The rates of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy in American teenagers and young adults are high relative to rates in other industrialized countries."<ref name="Gray Bjorklund 2017 p. ">{{cite book | last1=Gray | first1=Peter O. | last2=Bjorklund | first2=David F. | title=Psychology | publisher=Macmillan Higher Education | date=2017-12-22 | edition=8th | isbn=978-1-319-06035-0 | page=1044 | quote=The rates of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy in American teenagers and young adults are high relative to rates in other industrialized countries.}}</ref>