We are considering this week which is more effective, teaching safe sex or teaching abstinence. The answer to this question depends entirely upon the outcome you want.
If you want more pregnancies that result from casual sex, if you want more abortions, if you want more children born out of wedlock, if you want more unwanted children, then by all means teach abstinence, which we have proven beyond doubt is a very effective way of achieving all these results. If however the desired goal is fewer abortions, fewer pregnancies resulting from casual sex, fewer children born out of wedlock, fewer unwanted children, then it is absolutely crucial to teach safe sex, and to make contraception universally available and really inexpensive. Because I am a strong proponent of the latter set of goals — most of us are, aren’t we? — I believe strongly in teaching safe sex.
None of this suggests we should encourage teenagers to be sexually active. On the whole teens do better, have more close friends and develop a wider range of interests if they aren’t sexually active, and this sort of information should be readily available and said out loud in sex education classes. But it is time to stop kidding ourselves about the results of abstinence only education.
