Health Advocate Advises Parental Awareness of Pediatricians' Abstinence Stance
by Mary Rettig
July 13, 2005
(AgapePress) - The president of a group that promotes abstinence is condemning the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for its dismissal of abstinence-only education. In a recent update to its teen pregnancy policy, the pediatricians' organization asserted that adolescents need access to birth control and emergency contraception rather than exclusively abstinence-based intervention.Also, the AAP's policy has dropped a formerly included statement saying abstinence counseling is an important role for pediatricians. In light of the direction the pediatrics organization appears to be moving, Abstinence Clearinghouse president Leslee Unruh is urging parents to take a closer look at the beliefs of their children's health care providers.
"If you send your child to a doctor," Unruh says, "and you think that the doctor believes that abstinence is the safest, the best [policy for kids' sexual health], then you know you're going to have that doctor backing you up." But on the other hand, parents "should really know if a doctor is giving their child chemicals and talking to them about having sexual activity," the abstinence advocate warns, "because I believe that's very irresponsible in this day and age when you can die from having sex."
Unruh advises parents to make inquiries and determine whether their pediatricians adhere to the view that abstaining from sex until marriage -- and faithfulness in marriage -- are the best ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted disease. She feels the AAP's policy changes stressing birth control and contraception, including emergency contraception like the so-called "morning-after pill," are unwise and irresponsible.
"I think that health care is becoming very political," the Abstinence Clearinghouse president comments. The inevitable fallout as this trend progresses, she contends, will be "very devastating to America's youth," particularly "when we start to see emergency contraception [pushed], where there is so much information to prove that this is not helpful to our kids, and that it is not only not helpful but is very dangerous to kids."
The national debate rages on between those who favor abstinence and character-based sex education and those who tout the condom and contraceptive-based approach -- or what abstinence advocates sometimes call "the safe-sex myth." Meanwhile, Unruh says offering contraceptives to adolescents does nothing to clear up the contradictory messages young people are getting from society and the media.
In fact, Unruh contends, giving adolescents greater access to birth control and emergency contraception, as the AAP now recommends, just places more pressure on teens to have sex.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
