Let's advocate abstinence to our teens

When more than 10,000 (US) teens every day are contracting a sexually transmitted disease, many incurable and some deadly … we should be helping teens make healthy, not risky choices. Abstinence education … helps youth secure a healthy and positive future, a future that is seriously compromised when a teen becomes a parent or contracts an STD.

Thanks to comprehensive abstinence programs in thousands of US schools, more teens are making safe and healthy choices during critical teen years. They give teens positive messages, empowering them to resist the messages of a sex-saturated media, and a dishonest “if it feels good, do it” philosophy which impair the choices they make.

Professor David Paton published a study of the UK experience in the Journal of Health Economics. Paton points out that “the overall effect of expanding family planning services for under-16s has been to increase pregnancies and abortions.”

Australian legislators - and parents - should reject attempts to inflict the sex-ed empire’s failed brand of sex education on our teenagers.

Australian sexperts are poised to dump on anyone who advocates a fresh approach to reducing teenage pregnancies and promoting teenage health. But they can repeat the “comprehensive, world’s best-practice sex-education” mantra as much as they like.

The sex-ed approach they’ve pushed for over 30 years, far from being “best-practice”, has in reality been a disaster for the health of our youth and their future as healthy adults. It’s time for something better.