Journal 10

In the American Progress article, Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs Fail Teens, Olivia Ferguson argues against Abstinence-Only education in schools, and exposes some of the negative impacts it has had on American teenagers. The best example she gives in this article is the example of an investigation done by Texas Monthly.

This investigation found that Texas has the highest rates for Teenage pregnancies, educators are often not qualified in the way that they have no previous health education, those that did have health degrees also stated that the some of the curricula “did not contain a single fact” and that Texas is receiving $4.5 million every year through the Title V bill (more than any other state in the U.S.).

Ferguson cites many different studies, such as ones from the Centers for Disease Control that found that “although teenagers who take ‘virginity pledges’ may wait longer to initiate sexual activity, they are more likely to enjoy oral and anal sex, and they are just as likely as other students to be infected with sexually transmitted diseases” and “Eighty-eight percent eventually have premarital course”. She also cites a report from the Committee on Government Reform that stated only two out of the thirteen states gave accurate information about sex.

In this second report, Ferguson explains that abstinence-only education classes taught things such as, “Half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus”, “Touching a persons genitals ‘can result in pregnancy’”, “a 43-day-old fetus is a ‘thinking person’”, “HIV can be spread via sweat and tears”, “Women who experience abortions ‘are more prone to suicide,’ and as many as 10 percent become sterile”, and that “condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse” (Ferguson gives the correct percent being less than 3 percent).

Ferguson makes her argument against abstinence-only education very clear and operant that there are personal ideological motivations for abstinence-only education instead of compassionate motivation. In my paper, I would like to look up most of her sources and use more from where she got her info.