The Associated Press - Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999
Laura Meckler, Associated Press Writer

These "abstinence-only" policies teach students that they should wait until marriage, or at least until they are older, to have sex. The policies leave out any discussion of birth control to prevent pregnancy or transmission of HIV and other diseases - except to talk about the shortcomings of such approaches.

Most other schools opt for "abstinence-plus" programs that discourage sex but suggest use of contraception for students who choose to have it anyway.

Abstinence long has been promoted by conservative and religious groups who argue that talking about birth control sends teen-agers a mixed message, suggesting that premarital sex is really OK. The welfare overhaul legislation that President Clinton signed in 1996 included a five-year, $250 million program for abstinence-only programs.

But today's reports are the first to document how widespread abstinence-only programs are in American schools, which are a central source of sexuality education.

The first survey, by the Kaiser Family Foundation, asked secondary school principals about their sex-ed programs and found 34 percent had abstinence-only as the main message.

The second study, conducted independently by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, surveyed superintendents about district policies and found 35 percent of those with policies teach abstinence as the only option.

"School policy at the local level really does promote abstinence overwhelmingly," said Cory Richards, who co-authored the Guttmacher report, published in the current issue of Family Planning Perspectives. Richards noted that even in schools that allow for discussion of contraception, abstinence is taught as the preferred option.

These programs can be found across the country, but they are most prevalent in the South and least common in the Northeast.

"We teach that abstinence from sexual intercourse outside of lawful marriage is the expected social standard for unmarried, school-aged persons," said Stephen Pryor, spokesman for the Mobile County, Ala., public schools. The district, he explained, follows the mandate set by the state.

Fifteen states require that schools teach abstinence until marriage, and 13 require lessons about contraception. Some require both.

Most schools incorporate a discussion of both abstinence and birth control.

"The basis of our curriculum is abstinence, but human beings don't always follow that rule," said Katherine Nelson, who oversees health education at the Kent, Wash., School District, about 20 miles south of Seattle.

In 1995, 66 percent of teen-agers reported having sex by the time they graduated from high school.

The Guttmacher study suggests districts have moved closer to abstinence education in the past several years. While there was no net increase in the number of districts with abstinence-only policies, many districts moved from a policy that made no value judgment about abstaining from sex to one that promotes abstinence as the preferred option.

Research about the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs has been inconclusive, partly because they have not been around long enough to allow for rigorous research. There is some evidence that abstinence-plus programs can help prevent teen pregnancy.

Most Americans seem to support programs that promote abstinence and give information about contraception. A 1997 poll by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found that 95 percent of Americans say it is important for society to send teens a strong abstinence message. But just 22 percent of people said teens should not have access to birth control.

The federal abstinence program touched off a national debate over the approach, as states across the country try to decide whether to accept the money, which could not be mixed with programs that promote birth control. But there's been relatively little debate inside school districts. The Kaiser survey found debate over the issue in just 31 percent of schools, and these districts were equally likely to have ultimately opted for abstinence-only and for more comprehensive programs.

Similarly, Guttmacher found that about half the superintendents felt their communities had been "generally silent" about their sex-ed policies, with 41 percent strongly supporting them. Just 5 percent said their communities were divided.

Both surveys had a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.
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