Abstinence Ed Trumps Condom Programs
by AFA Journal
January 18, 2005
(AgapePress) - Choosing the Best, a health- and medical-oriented approach to teaching abstinence founded by Bruce Cook, was recently noted as being 50 percent more effective than condom-based sex education programs when it comes to delaying a teenager's first sexual encounter.Specifically, a study of the approach yielded a reduction in the initiation of sex among youth in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades who completed the program. Reducing the encounters thereby leads to a decrease in the risk of these students contracting sexually transmitted diseases and/or becoming pregnant.
"Not one of those school-based [condom] sex-ed programs has resulted in lowering pregnancy rates, STD rates or HIV rates. Not any of them," said Dr. Joe McIlhaney of the Medical Institute.
"After one year, ninth grade students who completed Choosing the Best curricula were 26 percent less likely to initiate sexual intercourse compared to a control group .... In addition, when all three sequential Choosing the Best curricula are taught, a cumulative reduction of 50 to 60% is projected," according to a press release posted on the group's website.
Choosing the Best is designed for public schools and uses what Cook refers to as an "Esther" ministry approach. "That book of the Bible doesn't mention God, but His handiwork is all over it," Cook explained.
With approximately 50 million children in public schools, Cook knew it would be crucial to teach abstinence from a health perspective by focusing on physical and emotional risks of sexual behavior, benefits of abstinence, relationships and refusal skills.
This article appeared in the January 2005 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
