Abstinence only sex education

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Abstinence only sex education is a form of sex education which emphasizes abstaining from sex, often to the exclusion of all other types of sexual and reproductive health education, particularly regarding birth control and safe sex. This type of sex education promotes sexual abstinence until marriage and either completely avoids any discussion about the use of contraceptives, or only reveals failure rates associated with such use.

The promotion of abstinence only sex education constitutes one of the major efforts by the religious right to suppress sexual activity other than that which ocurrs between the parties to a heterosexual marriage.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticism

As abstinence programs teach that abstaining from sex is the only effective or acceptable method of avoiding pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease, such programs are criticized for leaving young people uninformed about basic sexual and reproductive health issues, to the extent that they may be at higher risk of unwanted pregnancies (see teenage pregnancy). Some abstinence only education curricula has also been known to downplay the effectiveness of condoms or to exaggerate their failure rates.

[edit] See also

• Religious views on birth control
• Sexual norm
• Virginity pledge

[edit] References

Williams, Mary E. (Ed.). (2006). Sex: opposing viewpoints. Detroit: Greenhaven.