Abstinence-only undergoes scrutiny

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Abstinence-only undergoes scrutiny

Steady rise in STD rates fuels ongoing debate

By Kelly Soderlund, The Journal-Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana), January 15, 2006

An educator from the McMillen Center for Health Education stood in front of about 35 sixth-graders Monday at Jefferson Middle School and explained what could be expected when they went through puberty.

Some kids giggled and seemed embarrassed to talk about the prospect of growing hair in places they never had hair before and the curves that will befall the girls in the room. But almost immediately after educator David Ward showed a model of how a fetus fits into a woman's uterus, a student asked a question in all seriousness.

"So we're going to have that big talk about abstinence again?" sixth-grader Chris Kladis asked.

The students had heard it before, and they'll hear it many more times before they're out of high school: abstaining from sex is the only sure way to prevent pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

But what about using a condom, one student asked. Doesn't that protect you from sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy?

"They're not 100 percent, and that's the bottom line," Ward said.

Ward gave a quick speech about the ineffectiveness of condoms and then referred back to what the McMillen Center bases its teaching on: abstinence.

When it comes to sex education in schools, Indiana is an abstinence state and most districts teach students that not having sex until marriage is the best and safest route to go. Health educators rarely bring up methods of contraception, and it is not suggested that students use birth control if they are going to have sex.

But some disagree with abstinence-only education.

"We all know abstinence fails or we wouldn't have unplanned pregnancies or (sexually transmitted infections)," said Judy Harris, educator with Planned Parenthood of Indiana. "What do you do in the event it fails? What's your backup plan? What are you going to do? And that's the piece they're all missing. So for kids who are going to become sexually active - and usually that's about 50 percent by the time they finish high school - they're left with nothing so they're an underserved population by our system and parents, for that matter."

But Judy Hatke, executive director for A Hope Center Pregnancy & Relationship Resources, said teenagers are not ready to deal with the emotions that come along with a sexual relationship and the scarring caused by a breakup.

"Sex brings an element of bonding and when that sexual relationship occurs and then there's a breakup then there's the breaking of an emotional bond," Hatke said.

She also feels teens can't be trusted to use condoms correctly or take the birth control pill consistently and should therefore abstain from sex.

Critics of abstinence-only education say not teaching students about contraception is being naive to the fact that many teenagers are having sex. Proponents of saving sex for marriage say the proof is in the statistics, which show that pregnancy rates for women ages 10 to 24 have gone down across northeast Indiana between 1994 and 2003, according to the Indiana Department of Health.

"There is a lot of information out there to support abstinence as a way to reduce pregnancies and unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases and so on," said Sue Henry, HIV/STD project director and health services consultant for the Indiana Department of Education.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the number of high school students who have ever had sexual intercourse is down about 4 percent statewide from 2003 and the number of high school students who are currently sexually active is down about 4 percent.

However, sexually transmitted diseases for all groups seem to be on the rise according to figures from the Indiana Department of Health, which shows increases for 10 of the 11 counties in northeast Indiana.

Only Kosciusko County showed a decrease in the sexually transmitted disease rate per 1,000 men and women.

Other options allowed

The state Department of Education mandates that teaching abstinence before marriage is the expected standard but leaves wiggle room for school systems that feel their community may want students to learn about contraception. Joanne Schafer, curriculum coordinator with Fort Wayne Community Schools, said the Fort Wayne community would prefer its children to be taught purely about abstinence.

"From what I understand, in Fort Wayne we are conservative in nature so we don't go into a lot of detail about different types of programs."

There is no committee that polls the community on its views, but members do have input when the district adopts its health textbooks, FWCS spokeswoman Debbie Morgan said.

"Just because there isn't something formal doesn't mean we don't know what the community's thoughts are," Morgan said. "Plus, we are part of the community."

Many times it is left up to individual instructors and what they're comfortable with, Harris said. But most stick with telling students just about abstinence.

"I would say that generally … that abstinence is probably the focus of education as the law indicates that it should be," Henry said.

But according to a 2003 study by Indiana University's Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender and Reproduction, nearly eight in 10 Indiana residents believe high school students should be taught how to use condoms correctly to prevent the spread of HIV. Some parents with children at Homestead High School feel the same way.

"If the school wants to take a role in this, I think they should show both sides," said parent Laura O'Shaughnessy, who has two children at the school. "I think people need to be educated, and then they can choose the path that is morally right for them."

O'Shaughnessy believes that schools should give students the facts, but parents should bear the responsibility of explaining what is right for their child.

"The reality is that hormones are out there, and they're raging, and we can't say it's not going to happen. But just by saying it won't happen doesn't mean that it won't. I think that parents have to take responsibility on talking with their kids on their choices," O'Shaughnessy said.

Many school corporations and independent organizations will not bring up the subject of contraceptives but will answer students' questions about the subject if it's broached.

"If the discussion would come up about contraceptives then the teacher would discuss that," said Joanne Schafer, curriculum coordinator with FWCS.

Learning field trips

Many schools take field trips to the McMillen Center for sex education programs. The McMillen Center promotes only abstinence but will answer questions regarding contraceptives, said Linda Hathaway, program manager.

Sometimes Hathaway wishes the students with more sexual experience would ask more questions about contraception. The center serves 28 counties in Indiana and sees almost 45,000 students a year.

Hathaway doesn't feel that she's leaving out part of the puzzle by not teaching students about contraception.

"Sometimes I feel like they really need to ask questions, and so we really encourage kids to ask questions, because we really want to meet their needs," Hathaway said.

Like the Homestead parents, Hathaway feels the burden should fall on the parents to educate their child on sex. But many parents are uneasy about talking to their children about sex, said Harris of Planned Parenthood.

"Kids will admit right away that they want the information from their parents," Harris said. "Parents, on the other hand, don't feel very comfortable talking about it."

Harris tries to get the right information out to teenagers but is often blocked by school administrators. She's open to doing programs with schools like the McMillen Center does, but many schools do not want the message of Planned Parenthood brought to students.

"I think of a condom like I think of a fire extinguisher. I have a fire extinguisher in my home. I don't set fires. But in the event a fire happens I know how to use it and it's there," Harris said. "Kids who have been exposed to condoms are more likely to use them than kids who have been totally sheltered or condoms aren't talked about. You're building a comfort level there. If and when they're going to become sexually active they're going to be more likely to use it than if they've never been exposed to them."

Homestead sophomore Katie Peterson, 15, said more students are having sex than teachers think. She said she was taught about the consequences of having sex, that using a condom could prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases but that it wasn't 100 percent effective.

She thinks many students turn a deaf ear to the abstinence message.

"Some things seem a little bit outrageous," Peterson said. "No one's going to follow everything they say. But most kids in our school, if they choose to have sex, they use a condom."

Homestead senior Patrick Buschman, 17, estimates about half of the students in his school are sexually active.

"I know people that have, and I know people that haven't," Buschman said. "It's a big mix. It's expected. As you get older people mess around with that stuff more and more."

He also remembers learning that condoms could help prevent pregnancy but that abstinence should be students' first line of defense.

"They basically really pounded into us that abstinence was the best thing to do, was the safest thing," Buschman said. "They just said the best thing to do to prevent all that or getting somebody pregnant is to be abstinent. That's what they really drilled into us."

In Buschman's opinion, abstinence education can't hurt.

"That's probably the safest thing. You just never know out there now," he said. "I think the best thing to do now is to stay abstinent. You just don't want to put yourself in that situation."

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