Funding, Ideologies, Consequences and Implications of Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs

In 2005, an article by Katy Kelly entitled, "Just Don't Do It!" was published in U.S. News & World Report. Only a year prior to this article, the United States government released its report on the Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs, prepared by the Committee on Government Reform for Rep. Henry A. Waxman.

Though Kelly's story was and still is much needed in the sense that it sheds a balanced light on a controversial yet important topic, it (along with the government's report) fails to contemplate the potentially devastating consequences (physically, psychologically, and socially) of such programs on lesbian, gay, and queer youth.

Even a brief examination of some of the underlying theories, agendas, and implications makes the topic of comprehensive sex education, which includes abstinence as one of many options, that much more critical to the health and safety of all of our children and teenagers, regardless of sexual preference.

Additionally, the social and economic problem relative to the inappropriate mix of federal money, religious-motivated understandings of morality and sexuality, and the lobbying of these ideas, is (according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) growing more extreme with time.[i]

It is the same old dichotomist good-versus-evil depiction of virginity-versus-sexuality that sends the United States in a dangerous backward spiral, which only leaves our children dys-educated about how to protect themselves if they decide they want to engage in sexual activity, which many do. Some reports suggest that virginity pledges delay first intercourse by only 8 months, and this is a liberal estimate.

However, when the time comes for teenagers and young adults to assert their sexuality, those engaging in sexual activity are, sadly, ignorant, unprepared, and uniformed. In controlled studies, rates of teenage pregnancy and teenage sexually transmitted infections (or, STIs) are higher for students having been educated on the topic of sex through federally funded abstinence-only programs than those who attended comprehensive sex education programs.[ii]

Study after study has demonstrated the general failure of abstinence-only programs to lower incidences of teenage pregnancy and teenage contraction of STIs. While some reports discuss that certain types of abstinence-only sex education programs "work," overwhelming evidence points the other way.

Though abstinence may be an important thing to advocate, an entirely new opportunity to commodify virginity arises from the business of virginity in several regards. Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have become venues through which to sell items such as virginity rings and even virginity underwear. Slogans like "Virginity Lane. Exit when married" and "No Vows. No sex"[iii] are written on-not just anybody's underwear, but specifically girl's panties, and are sold by virginity clubs.

Furthermore, "ATM cards," where "ATM" stands for "Abstinence 'Til Marriage," are distributed in some of the classrooms as part of the abstinence-only programs' outreach.[iv] Connecting the acronym, ATM, which as we well know stands for Automatic Teller Machine, and from which we retrieve cold hard cash, to the idea that individuals (in this case, teenagers) should remain virgins until marriage very overtly links money to virginity. Money is success. Virginity is purity. Success is purity. Success is virginity.

We must keep in mind that this kind of virginity, the virginity that requires abstinence until marriage, is a heterosexual virginity, necessitating heterosexist abstinence. It is the kind of virginity that exists as long as a hymen has not been passed through by a penis. One teen, in discussing the abstinence-only program at his school remarks, "Homosexuality is a bit of a hot topic. We didn't really go into that."[v] Lesbian and gay ways of existing in any sexual context are completely ignored in this federally-funded abstinence-until-marriage paradigm, since lesbian and gay marriages are not legally recognized in the United States on a federal level.

Another teen says, "As a gay student, I thought it was ridiculous... Abstinence until marriage for people who can't even get married."[vi] Since abstinence until marriage is pushed as the best and only real way to be sexual without contracting STIs, and since lesbian and gay marriages go unrecognized in the same ways that gay sex is ignored, ATM programs imply (rather uncouthly) that lesbian and gay teenagers would be better off to never be sexual. This acts as a mechanism of epistemological as well as pedagogical eradication of queer persons because being sexual is the very thing that helps us define our sexuality as well as our social existence, at least to some extent.

Not surprisingly, the schism between pro- and anti-abstinence-only advocates is deeply rooted in fundamentalist religious beliefs. One 16 year-old student, who was permitted to act as a speaker, traveling from school to school in the Chicago area as part of abstinence-only curricula, confidently admitted, "My message is for marriage... They [the students] will be sent a husband or wife. God has already ordained that special someone."[vii]

From the time this particular student began speaking until October 2005, she had traveled to 95 public schools with her "godly" message.[viii] While some may shrug off this student's polemics as mere naivety-a product of ignorant youth-we must nevertheless pay close attention to precisely what is happening here. For, acutely religious messages are not only supported by ATM programs, but are more importantly an integral part of them.

Abstinence-until-marriage-only programs, laden with fundamentalist themes, are funded by the federal and state governments to an alarming extent. According to a 2005 statistic, ATM programs, which are grounded in a Judeo-Christian ethic, are now disseminated to 35% of public schools to the tune of more than one billion dollars since the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.[ix] Separation from church and state is non-existent in this regard.

In the meantime, ATM programs have shown to be, at least, correlated to the rising rates of teenage pregnancy and STIs in the United States.

Alarmingly, funding for ATM programs has increased since Kelly's article was published. By funding abstinence-only programs,[x] while cutting funding from comprehensive sex education, and fueling both patriarchal heterosexism and homophobia all in one fell swoop, the federal government is doing a real disservice to the future generation of our country.

The federal government in combination with most abstinence-only programs, as a unit, is more willing to push certain political socio-religious agendas in the name of morality than they are to grant children's rights to comprehensive sexual education. Whether one subscribes to right- or left- wing politics (though, most Americans claim to be moderate), abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education is an issue that we should be paying close attention to, especially if we care about the health, safety, and sexual education of both kids and young adults in the United States.

[i] See SIECUS for one of the most recent in-depth press releases regarding new claims by the Department of Health and Human Services. Also, for access to information regarding precisely what the Abstinence-Only programs require in order to receive funding from the federal government, see Section 510(b) of Title V of the Social Security Act, P.L. 104-193.

[ii] For further information, see the federal government report itself.

[iii] Kelly, Katy. 2005. Just don't do it!U.S. News & World Report, October 17: 45-51. p. 47

[iv] Ibid. p. 45

[v] Ibid. p. 49

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Ibid. p.46

[x] During the Clinton Administration, as part of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, "Congress established a federal program to exclusively fund 'abstinence-only' curricula" (Kelly 2005, 46).