With Failures Like These... -

Yesterday, we discussed the Strib's declaration that "abstinence only" sex education is a "failure". I had a quibble or two with the conclusion.

So did Joe at Evangelical Outpost, who points out a British observation on the subject:

In the past decade, the number of teenage pregnancies in America has decreased by 30 per cent, with the past year's statistics indicating a historic low of just 43 births per 1,000 teenage girls.

[Promoting abstinence] has been acknowledged as a success, and we, on the other side of the Atlantic, look on in envy. In Britain, the Government has adopted a vastly different approach - that of dishing out condoms and morning-after pills, making sex education compulsory in secondary schools, and inundating our teenagers with explicit information on sex. Sex education in our schools is aimed at increasing sexual knowledge and encouraging contraception to combat teenage pregnancy, rather than condemning underage sex: preventing pregnancy rather than preventing sex is the Government's aim.

While it is a strategy that is lauded in liberal circles, it is also a strategy that has not worked. We have failed utterly to reduce the numbers of gymslip mothers. For the past 12 years Britain has been the pregnancy capital of Europe. According to Unicef's latest figures, in 2002 some 41,966 British girls under 18 became pregnant. Of those, 5,954 were 15; 2,011 were 14, and 450 were under 14.

Such has been the dismal failure in reducing these figures that there have been calls to ditch our "safe sex" schools programme and adopt the American abstinence approach.

Ah, but what do they know. The Strib has spoken!

Posted by Mitch at January 13, 2004 06:03 AM