Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Brits: Abstinence is a myth
Got a tip for a post?:
Email us | Anonymous form
A hearty thank-you to Britain's Telegraph for reporting so bluntly on American research revealing the failure of American abstinence programs:
Sexual abstinence as an effective tool in reducing teenage pregnancy is a complete "myth", the Government's advisory body on the issue claimed yesterday.
The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy said that research from the United States showed that contraception was the way to bring down rates. Researchers from Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute examined the relative roles of abstinence and contraceptive use in the "remarkable decline" in US teenage pregnancy rates, which dropped 27 per cent from 1991 to 2000. They said that 86 per cent of the decline in teenage pregnancy was due to improved use of contraception.
Only 14 per cent of the drop amongst 15- to 19-year-olds was linked to reduced sexual activity, according to the study, published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Public Health.Much obliged for the factual and uncompromised-by-faux-"two sides"-objectivity reporting, Britain!
| Also by Melissa McEwan | ||||
| Enough Crowing Over Carrie Prejean's Sex Tape "Hypocrisy" Prejean was wrong about same-sex marriage. She's not any more wrong if she's a moral scold with an expressed sexuality of her own. November 16, 2009. |
Catholic Church Threatens to Stop Taking DC's Money if Officials Don't Bow to its Demands on Same-Sex Marriage Quite the threat. November 12, 2009. |
President Obama Has Refused to Stand Up for Women, Plain and Simple The president's "toe the line" approach is not acceptable this time. November 10, 2009. |
Anti-Rape Activist Gabrielle Union Speaks Out About Her Own Rape and the Richmond, CA Gang Rape "After googling the gang rape story in Richmond and reading comments on blogs, it just leaves me sickened and really sad." November 5, 2009. |
Rahm Emanuel on Public Option: "It's Not the Defining Piece of Health Care" In multiple TV appearances on Sunday, the White House Chief of Staff reiterated that the public option is not mandatory. October 19, 2009. |