Sex Education: Why Teach Abstinence Only?

I had an interesting discussion with one of my husband Matthew's and my friends several weeks ago (let's call him "Nathan"). We sat by the fire in our living room while Matthew churned out lattes and mochas in the kitchen for other guests who were milling about, setting up card games.

Somehow the subject of abstinence education versus "safe" sex education came up. "Abstinence-only" education, also called "abstinence-till-marriage," teaches about the emotional, social, and physical benefits of having sex only within a faithful marriage relationship. It includes teaching about the failure rates and unreliability of contraception in preventing STDs and pregnancy. Sex education (so-called "safe" sex teaching) encourages promiscuous sexual activity as a natural part of life and teaches (explicitly) about contraceptive devices, how to use them, and where to get them.

As a Christian, I believe that fornication (isn't that a great word?) is sin, and therefore tend to personally approach the debate on a moral basis: "Let's teach abstinence because it's ‘right.'" Nathan, also a Christian, didn't really see the problem with the way sex education is currently taught in public schools.

I had some strong evidence to back up my personal belief, having just read an interesting report about the effectiveness of abstinence-only education in combating AIDS:

"And the bill mandating the two-child policy includes sex education for Filipino children, even though abstinence-based efforts in the Philippines have been remarkably effective in containing the spread of AIDS…. The Filipino abstinence-based approach…has kept the Philippines relatively free of HIV infection. The adult HIV infection rate was a mere 0.1% in 2001, though the Philippines has a low condom use rate. Even Arroyo [the governor] ascribed this success to 'good morality.' Yet results don't matter: The bill adopts the pro-"safe" sex approach that has failed everywhere." (From The Population Research Institute's Weekly Briefing, 15 July 2005)