AP: As federal abstinence funds dry up, faith groups take the lead

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Jeiel Ballard and his girlfriend, both 16, are dressed up in their best attire, ready for a night of dancing and fun.

But there will be no close embraces or risque moves to test chaperones on the dance floor. The "purity ball" sponsored by their Seventh-day Adventist Church will feature a vow to abstain from sex until marriage and offer tips on "appropriate" touching between the sexes.

"It's tough, but when you have sex at an early age it can become addictive," Ballard said. "And when you get addicted ... it can lead you down the wrong path."

Read the whole article.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • Teens / Youth • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology

3 Comments
Posted January 26, 2010 at 8:48 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Dale Rye wrote:

A report was released this week showing that the teenage pregnancy rate rose from 2005 to 2006 (to over 7%) for the first time since 1990, and that the abortion rate has also gone up for the first time in about a decade (although not as fast as the live birth rate). The data suggest that abstinence-only programs have had a salutary effect on controlling pregnancy rates for the 15 to 17-year-old population, but that the heightened rates among 18 and 19-year-olds who are not using birth control more than make up for it. Other factors are the perception that HIV/AIDs is no longer a death sentence, and changes in population demographics. This problem is not going away through wishful thinking.

January 26, 1:09 pm | [comment link]
2. tgd wrote:

The conclusions of that report, and the article that it cites by Santelli (of Guttmacher), do not attribute anything “salutary” to abstinence-only programs—further, rising levels of abstinence in the 15 to 17 population are not attributed to those programs.

January 26, 3:03 pm | [comment link]
3. Dale Rye wrote:

The following struck me as “salutary”—

By 1990 or 1991, the pregnancy rate among teenagers and young women had begun a steady and
consistent decline. A decrease in both birth and abortion rates among these women signaled that
both intended and unintended pregnancy rates were declining among these age-groups. Recent
research concluded that almost all of the decline in the pregnancy rate between 1995 and 2002
among 18–19-year-olds was attributable to increased contraceptive use. Among women aged
15–17, about one-quarter of the decline during the same period was attributable to reduced
sexual activity and three-quarters to increased contraceptive use.

So, abstinence was credited with about 25% of a 30-year decline in pregnancy rates from 116.9 per 1000 to 69.5. Given the number of states that had mandated abstinence-only programs during that time period, it is reasonable to give the programs some credit. Admittedly, abstinence-plus programs are credited as being considerably better, since they are also effective in reducing pregnancy rates in the above-18 population.

January 26, 6:09 pm | [comment link]
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