The Cruelty of Sexual Education in America

     The bible has always stood for ignorance and blind belief and the results from this have never been pretty. In the United States, where the religious right has been having their way in the inner halls of government especially in regards to sexual education, over $100 million a year has been spent these past few years on federal abstinence-only programs where an instructor cannot even give information about contraception, except to cite failure rates even though there are no credible, scientifically reviewed research that shows these programs work. Half of all 17-year olds have had sexual intercourse, resulting in 750,000 teenagers becoming pregnant each year and almost 4 million acquiring a STD. According to the NCPTP, the number is more than one million American teenagers pregnant each year, leaving the US way out in front of all other industrialized nations with this costly and painful problem. Recently Tommy G. Thompson, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, speaking for President Bush said, "Abstinence is the only sure way of avoiding sexually transmitted disease, premature pregnancy and the social and personal difficulties attendant to non marital sexual activity." Amy Cohen, president of Population Action International said, "We have over 87 percent of Americans who believe there should be comprehensive sex education in schools and we have a Congress that does not support this in their legislation." She cited the Netherlands that has a good general sex education program and exceptionally low rates of teen-age pregnancy, of HIV and STDs in youth. What kind of situation do we really have when we have seemingly ‘well-meaning’ adults trying to protect children and teen-agers from sexual activity by keeping vital knowledge from them? 

     With one in four sexually active teens set to get an STD this year and over 50% of new HIV infections occurring among those under 25, there is little question that sexual health issues hit young people hard. Yet President Bush has proposed nearly doubling federal spending next year on programs that adhere to eight strict criteria “prohibiting” any mention of contraception except failure rates. Is this a form or terrorism against our own children?   

     Belle Sawhill, senior researcher at the Brookings Institution and president of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy said "There is some merit in promoting abstinence," "But it's also the case that there are going to be kids, no matter what adults tell them, who are going to be sexually active, and it doesn't make sense to deny them information about how to protect themselves." “Sixty-five percent of students have already engaged in intercourse by the time they leave high school,” said Lloyd J. Kolbe, director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).        

     Abstinence-only-until-marriage education funding goes only to programs that exclude any discussion of contraception, except in terms of contraceptive (including condoms) failure rates. They often use fear-based messages saying that condoms are ineffective, that premarital sex can have dire emotional and psychological consequences, and use religious rhetoric to discourage sexual activity among students. At heart and in essence, the president and the congressional and senatorial legislators who vote public money for such things are stating in unspoken language, “if you do not wait to have intercourse until marriage and thus get Aids, pregnant, contract other sexually transmitted disease, or suffer emotionally, you basically deserve it. In fact we will maximize the probability that you will suffer from one of the above because we will deny you information with which you might protect yourself.”  It’s kind of; if you sin you will burn in hell. Since 1996, Congress has committed over half a billion dollars to abstinence-only education programs and zero dollars to comprehensive sexuality education. This is not only wrong it is cruel, mean hearted and is responsible, in part, for a great deal of suffering of millions of young people.

       Obviously not everyone in the American government is out of his or her minds with religious fundamental cruelty. Greenwood and Rep. Barbara T. Lee (D-Calif.) sponsor legislation to fund programs teaching a combination of abstinence and contraception. And in Louisiana, for example, where 1.6 million in federal money allotted for abstinence-only sex education programs, has recently filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, contends that federal funding was used to promote such religious activities as prayer vigils at abortion clinics, "Christ-centered" skits that advocate sexual abstinence and Christmas youth revivals focusing on "virgin birth" and commitment to "sexual purity" and "scriptural concepts" to promote abstinence, all of which violates the separation of church and state outlined in the U.S. Constitution.  

     There is little intelligence in suggesting that teenagers not learn to drive cars because they are highly dangerous, thus suggesting one should wait till old age before taking the risk. Sexual abstinence is a legitimate subject to discuss and teach but not in the context of religious morality or principle. Especially in modern days when the chance of staying married is less than fifty percent. In reality waiting for sex until marriage and family life, which are themselves highly unstable today, is like asking kids to suffer for nothing, learn nothing, only to suffer in tragic marriages, which will end, in most probability, in divorce. If the moral majority or Christian right had some of the love and compassion needed to protect the young they would realize that the path to successful relationships is education with no artificial limits put on them. That education can and does include premarital sexual relationships for more than half of all young people who choose life experience over denial. That is a fact and wishing it away is not productive in any sense of the word. Countries like the Netherlands have shown that open education is sane and helps the young find their way more effectively through young peoples difficulties with sexuality. When sexual intelligence is increased in the young the results are dramatic in terms of reduced incidences of teenage pregnancy and lower rates of STDs. Increasing sexual intelligence through sexual education is more empathetic, compassionate and moral than Christian morality. In the case of teenager sexuality, this kind of morality stands alongside some of the cruelest and most mean hearted acts of humanity. We might as well line the kids up for the ovens again; certainly they are tortured by attitudes and government policies that limit their knowledge and understanding of some of life’s most important processes. They need all the information they can get so they can learn what is most important to learn and anything that is against that process is immoral. In situations like this who needs to bother with external terrorist threats, the kids should be more worried about their own government and religious institutions which prefer to line them up with their souls against the walls. 

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