Abstinence vs. Safe Sex

Abstinence vs. Safe Sex

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There are generally two ways in which our society attempts to combat the epidemics of teenage pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. The first is by promoting safe sex, which has been an overall failure for the past 20 years. The second is by promoting abstinence, which had been overwhelmingly successful in the United States until the onset of the sexual revolution, since which it has scarcely been attempted.

There is now a movement in the country that has set out to revitalize the abstinence message, a movement that tells teenagers that waiting until marriage is the only way to protect yourself from STDs and pregnancy. This movement, of course, receives more than its share of criticism by those who accuse it of actually jeopardizing the health and safely of those teens they want to protect. As the argument goes, kids are having sex anyway, so it’s better to tell them to put on a condom than to expect them to live up to the impossible demand to control themselves sexually.

What these critics of the abstinence movement do not understand is that behind the abstinence message is not only a concern for public health, but rather an entire cultural shift. The 1960s are over, and in addition to protecting our children from STDs, we also want to help them grow up with strong positive values, and appreciation for the sanctity marriage, and a reverence for their own bodies. This is not even to mention, of course, that once this cultural shift takes place, the number of STDs and teenage pregnancies will be reduced to numbers smaller than the safe sex movement could never dream of achieving.