Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Ignore Those Most in Need

Although they are often presented to communities and school boards as programs designed to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence-onlyuntil- marriage programs consistently ignore many of the young people who are most in need of information, education, and skills. Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs:

Exclude Gay and Lesbian Youth

The federal definition requires programs to teach that “a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity.” By their very nature, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs exclude gay and lesbian youth who can not legally marry in this country.*

Unlike their heterosexual peers who may someday marry, gay and lesbian teens are essentially told that their sexual feelings will always conflict with society’s standards and that they should never engage in sexual activity.

Gay and lesbian students, especially young men who have sex with men, are at increased risk for STDs, including HIV, yet abstinence-only-until-marriage programs fail to provide these students with any realistic strategies for protecting themselves from these risks.

Discount Sexually Abused Teens

An alarming number of teens in this country have been the victim of sexual abuse during their young lives. According to the CDC’s 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS), 12 percent of female high school students and 6 percent of male high school students report having been forced to have sexual intercourse.¹

Unfortunately, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs fail to provide this vulnerable group of teens with information or skills that could help them cope with the issue of sexual abuse. Instead, students are simply told that all sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong and that individuals who engage in sexual activity before marriage face dire consequences such as the inability to bond emotionally with a partner. Such messages are likely to cause further feelings of hurt, shame, anger, and embarrassment in these already victimized young people.

Stigmatize Pregnant and Parenting Teens

Federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are required to teach that “bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society.”

Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, however, fail to acknowledge that some students will already be pregnant or parenting a child. Nearly 500,000 teen births occurred in 2000 and the majority of these (79 percent) occurred outside of marriage. Given that 20 percent of the births to teen mothers in 2000 were repeat births (births of a second, third, or higher birth order child), it is clear that pregnant and parenting students are in need of prevention programs.²

Informing these students that they have caused irrevocable harm to themselves, their children, and society as a whole is not the answer. This will likely only further alienate them from their peers, the program, and the program’s messages. These at-risk young people would be better served by programs that acknowledge the difficulties of teen pregnancy while not wholly stigmatizing teen parents.

* NOTE: Recent court decisions in Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut have granted same-sex couples the right to marry in those states. Some legal and legislative challenges remain and it is therefore unclear whether this right will be permanently guaranteed in these states or other states in the country.

References

1. Jo Anne Grunbaum, et. al., “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2003,” Surveillance Summaries, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 53.SS-2 (21May 2004), 39. Available online at:
2. Jodie Levin-Epstein, Myra Batchelder, and Christine Grisham, Comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regarding Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Teen Parents Provisions in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant, (Washington, DC: Center for Law and Social Policy, November 2001).