The health care reform law that Obama just signed includes spending $50 million per year for the next five years on abstinence programs. These programs will encourage individuals to be abstinent and to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. In order to qualify, the programs are required to educate the public about the damaging mental and physical results of having sex prior to marriage. These requirements are included in the A-H definition for programs to be funded from the Title V of the Social Security Act. In the article, the exectuive director of Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership, Scott Phelps, states, "Title V is trying to make sure that kids are being given a message that saving sex and childbearing for marriage is the safest, healthiest, best choice". Some support spending $250 million on abstinence education, however, others believe that these programs will not be beneficial. Many studies have shown that it's difficult for individuals to always practice abstinence.
I think that we should spend $250 million on abstinence programs. Many teenagers are getting pregnant these days and it's important to prevent future teen pregnancies. The majority of these teenagers struggle to provide for their child because they're so young. Therefore, it is necessary to have these abstinence programs to educate teenagers about the dangers of having sex before marriage. In addition, the programs can teach individuals about the dangerous effects of sexually transmitted diseases.
Do you think that we should spend $250 million on abstinence programs?
6 comments:
It depends on when this education will take place in a child's lifetime. I believe that if they introduced the side effects of these type of decisions early on like middle school or lower (as to scare) there will be more abstinence. By the time, these kids reach their teens whats to say they won't just disregard everything adults say? ;)That's a huge sum to spend though.
I believe this abstinence education to be a very valuable thing for our nation. It is true that people are gettin pregnant at a very young age. Some are unwanted, which is a bad thing. These pregnancies can really mess up a teens' teenage years. Education about the dangers of pregnancy at a young age. It should also lower teen pregnancies.
The government could spend 250 million on abstinence programs but I don't fully agree that abstinence programs will prevent teen pregnancies.
I slightly agree with Lily that it depends on when the teaching is put into place in one's life, however, I believe that it's possible that the abstinence "scare" may only last for a little while.
-Emily Niemann
Learning about abstinence is a important, I agree. However, this is a huge amount of money to be spent on just that. Especially since so many schools already have health classes that teach their students about abstinence. Furthermore, like Colin said, many pregnancies are unwanted. If they are unwanted, then there is nothing to do with abstinence in that case. Teaching students about abstinece doesn't help prevent sexual assaults or sexual offenders out there from causing these unwanted pregnancies. Abstinence would really then, be more helpful to society if guys participate in it.
I do think that learning about sex ed is extremely to kids especially starting at a young age because most young kids are exposed to sexual content from our media nowadays through t.v, music, and the internet. However, I feel that spending that much money on abstinence may not be very influencial because teens will still continue to have sex anyways.
Schools that teach only abstinence have higher teen pregnancy rates than schools that teach about safe sex.
Maybe instead of telling a bunch of hormone filled teenagers not to breed like bunnies, we ought to tell them how to do it safely? Abstinence is fine; it's 100% effective, but teaching it is not very effective. We cannot honestly expect that when you lock thousands of teenagers in a building with each other that no one is going to have sex. It's unrealistic to the point of lunacy. Teach them about birth control; that works better.
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