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Comprehensive Vs. Abstinence-Only

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Comprehensive Vs. Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education: Comprehensive Vs. Abstinence-Only

High school is either the best days of your life or four years of struggling and mild torture for teens, and the pressure to be sexually active can push adolescents towards the latter. The idea that sexual activity is the ticket to popularity is burned into teens brains by the media, through television, major label music, and movies, their peers, and celebrity role models. They are bombarded with images and sounds dripping with sexual innuendos and sometimes-blatant encouragement of adolescent sex. It is almost impossible to believe that any teen has not become sexually active after their constant exposure to the sex-craved American entertainment system. These are some of the reasons …show more content…
Kristine Napier, the author of The Power of Abstinence, reports "the Campaign aims to create a national consensus that unwed teen pregnancy is not acceptable… how the Campaign hopes to accomplish its goal, however, remains unclear." She's is not sure whether it will "focus on contraceptive education and availability, or… acknowledge the legitimacy and success of the abstinence approach." (Napier) Teen pregnancy rates are at a historic high, and an alarming one-third of the twenty million annual reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases are junior-high and high- school students. These children have always been taught that abstinence is the best course, but they still choose to go out and participate in sexual activities. Their participation cannot be prevented, that has been proven. Teens, no matter how much abstinence is preached to them, will sometimes choose to have sex, and if they are uneducated on sexual safety and precautionary measures, the numbers mentioned above about teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases will continue to …show more content…
(1998, July 10). Encouraging teen abstinence. The CQ Researcher Online, 8. Retrieved March 18, 2004, from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher

Chammas, Danielle. (2004, April 29). Abstinence-only programs: Has sexual education failed our nations young women? The Stanford Daily, Retrieved May 2, 2004, http://daily.stanford.edu/daily/servlet/tempo?page=content&id=13982&repository=0001_article

Napier, Kristine. (1997). Abstinence-Only Programs Reduce Teen Pregnancy. Gale Group Opposing Viewpoints Research Center. Retrieved April 1, 2004. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=212&slb=SU&locID=pl2552&srchtp=basic

Grigoriadis, Vanessa. (2000). Abstinence is Increasing Among Young Teens. The Gale Group Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Retrieved April 1, 2004.
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