CTB Commentary

Response to Sheryl McCarthy's editorial
“Adolesence: Abstinence Policy Ineffective”

Columnist Sheryl McCarthy’s editorial “Adolescence: Abstinence policy ineffective” (Atlanta Journal Constitution July 12, 2005) was a rehash of old, failed arguments.

For the American Academy of Pediatrics to abandon the academy’s former policy that called abstinence counseling “an important role for all pediatricians” is to fail to give our young people a message that 87% of parents support: Abstinence is the only certain way to avoid the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), pregnancy or the negative psychological impact of adolescent sexual activity.

Is it a realistic message that young people will respond to? Absolutely. Today the majority of teens are not having sex. According to a CDC report, over 50% of the national reduction in teen pregnancies is coming from teens choosing abstinence. Georgia’s 41% reduction in teen pregnancies over the past 10 years can be traced to the change in school policy mandating abstinence education in the public schools.

Do teens need contraception information? Absolutely. They need to learn that condoms have limited value in reducing the risk of STDs. They should learn that for the STDs that are most common to adolescents (such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes) condoms, even when used 100 percent of the time, only reduce the risk of infection by approximately 50 percent. Condoms also provide little protection against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that currently infects 50% of adolescents who are sexually active and causes 99% of cervical cancer — a malady which claims as many lives among women each year as AIDS.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy consistently shows in its annual surveys that 90% of teens feel they need a strong message about sexual abstinence all the way through the completion of high school. I encourage the AAP to reactivate abstinence counseling instead of giving up on our young people by promoting “safe sex” — which is clearly not safe enough!