Marc Lamont Hill: It's Time to Kill the Abstinence Argument

by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, YourBlackWorld.com

Over the past decade, STD and pregnancy rates have skyrocketed among teens. The response by many has been to promote abstinence-only education to curb this disturbing trend. Unfortunately, after wasting millions of dollars and countless classroom hours, it’s time to accept the truth: abstinence-only programs don’t work. Perhaps the most persuasive argument against abstinence-only education is that it doesn’t stop teens from having sex. Based on data from multiple studies, students enrolled in abstinence-only programs had sex at the same age as those who didn’t. The programs are also fiscally wasteful and notorious for distributing questionable, ambiguous, and outright fallacious information about sexual health that places young people at a greater risk for disease and unwanted pregnancy. Many schools have also used “purity pledges,” where students promise not to have sex until marriage. According to studies, however, purity pledges only work when the students taking them are in the minority. In fact, in places where the majority of teens took the pledge, there was no change in students’ sexual decision making. Some will argue that “something is better than nothing,” and that purity pledges are valuable even if they can only “save” a few teens from the horrors of sex.

In reality, however, the slight gains made by purity pledges are accompanied by other negative consequences. Purity pledgers are more likely to engage in unprotected sex and not to get tested for STDs. Since STD rates are similar among pledgers and non-pledgers despite this underreporting, it is likely that purity pledges actually increase the chances of getting an STD. Why? Because purity pledges and abstinence-only training often deprive our youth of the informational tools necessary to protect themselves. Instead of continuing to push abstinence-only education, we must work toward a complete transformation of sex education in the United States. To be sure, such a transformation includes abstinence education as a desirable option. In addition, we must provide accurate information about how our bodies function, how diseases and infections are obtained, and how to protect ourselves from undesirable outcomes. This type of multi-faceted approach does not encourage students to have sex, but to take responsibility for their own physical, mental, social, and sexual well-being.
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Marc Lamont Hill is an assistant professor of urban education and American studies at Temple University.