Virginity Pledges As Ineffective as Abstinence-Only Sex Ed

Teens who take virginity pledges still have sex - just without birth control.

By Joshua Silberstein

A new study published in the medical journal Pediatrics concludes that teens who take virginity pledges are not only just as likely to have sex as those who don't – they're also more likely to forego birth control or protection against STDs.

The study showed that "pledgers" and "non-pledgers" had sex with the same frequency, and with the same variety of partners. The key difference between the two groups was that teens who took the pledge were significantly less likely to use condoms or other birth control.

These findings are eerily similar to a study published earlier this year in the Journal of Adolescent Health, which focused on the impact of abstinence-only sex education, the health curriculum favored by the Christian Right. The study concluded that girls who are taught abstinence-only sexual education are significantly more likely to become pregnant than those teenagers taught about the full range of contraception methods.

There is a common theme evident in these results. In each case, researchers studied the impact of a "health program" that was developed not to provide young adults with the best possible health information, but to promote a political/religious agenda. In both cases, the result was the same – the attempt to provide "moral guidelines" in lieu of education had disastrous effects.

Neither virginity pledges nor abstinence-only education are effective deterrents to pre-marital sex. However, since they are quite effective at deterring the use of birth control, perhaps the federal government should rethink the $200 million spent annually supporting these programs.

Related Links:

Study Abstract – from Pediatrics

Abstinence-Only Sex Ed – from Sex Health Guru

Birth Control Options – from FamilyDoctor.Org

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