Christian Doctors Group Says Abstinence Study Conforms to What Parents Want
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 2, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A national Christian doctors organization is applauding a new study showing how abstinence education is more effective than either comprehensive sexual education or teaching only about contraception. They say the results coincide with polling data showing parents favor teaching their children abstinence.
Dr. David Stevens, the head of the 16,000-member Christian Medical Association, said he appreciated the new study, published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.
Science has finally caught up with logic and what parents have known for centuries by empirically demonstrating that equipping teens to abstain from sexual activity is an effective way to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases," he said.
Stevens told LifeNews.com: "It is notable that John B. Jemmott III, the University of Pennsylvania professor who led the federally funded study, candidly admitted, ‘I think we’ve written off abstinence-only education without looking closely at the nature of the evidence.’"
"What we should learn from this experience is that while science itself is objective, scientists themselves can be biased and can mislead the public and policy makers," he said.
Stevens pointed out that a survey from Zogby International shows that when parents become aware of what abstinence education versus comprehensive sex education actually teaches, support for abstinence programs jumps from 40% to 60% while support for comprehensive programs drops from 50% to 30%.
Some 59 percent of parents said more funding should go to abstinence education; 22% said more should go to comprehensive sex education."
Stevens said it is time for abstinence education opponents to realize that abstinence education is effective.
"Many groups and individuals up until yesterday had relentlessly railed against abstinence programs as totally ineffective, even counterproductive," he said. "They had used their own studies to convince many legislators, including President Obama, to eliminate federal funding for abstinence programs altogether, in the process depriving teens and their parents from a potent resource that can mean a lifesaving difference."
He concluded: "It turns out that when it comes to educating their children on matters of sex, Mom and Dad really do know best."
Related web sites:
Christian Medical Association – https://www.cmda.org
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