Why abstinence is bad

According to the researchers, these programs also violate adolescent human rights, withhold medically accurate information, stigmatize or exclude many youth, reinforce harmful gender stereotypes, and undermine public health programs.

Both papers are published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. These programs simply do not prepare young people to avoid unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases. To study current U. They report that a rapidly rising age of first marriage has translated to shrinking numbers of young people who abstain from sex before getting married.

In the U. A recent report concluded that sex education that promotes waiting to have sex until marriage can be harmful, misguided, and stigmatizing for many teens. The report published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that these abstinence-only-until-marriage programs AOUMs made little difference in teen sexual behavior, and could even be harmful or shaming for some teens — and even affect their mental health.

Additionally, comprehensive sex education, which includes information about condoms and contraception, has been decreasing since the mid s, according to the report. The researchers also found that AOUM programs were ineffective at reducing rates of HIV infection, and that teens included in these programs did not change their sexual behaviors — such as delaying having sex for the first time — compared with those in control groups that had not received sex education.

Teens who had comprehensive sex education that focused on risk reduction had a smaller chance of becoming pregnant or infected with HIV or another sexually transmitted disease STD , according to their research. The researchers also pointed out that these programs can be misleading, and essentially are not based on realistic teen behaviors. The average time span between the first time a person has sex and the time when they get married has risen to approximately 8.

Not only can that lead to sexual health consequences, but it can affect the mental health of teens who are LGBTQ. In addition, these programs focus on traditional gender roles, such as female passivity and male aggressiveness, which have been associated with risky sexual behaviors.

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