LATEST NEWS : DEFINE “ABSTINENCE,” PLEASE
POSTED: MAY 20, 2007
[Abstinence Clearinghouse E-Mail Update 5/23/07]
Although one recent poll shows Congress’s approval rating—29%--to be even lower than the president’s much-discussed 33%, that legislative body may not only defund abstinence-til-marriage education but, by so doing, also push the federal guidelines which have kept “abstinence” from becoming “anything but intercourse” into oblivion. The language defining true abstinence education in physical, psychological, and social terms is contained in the original Title V legislation.
“Safe sex” style programs often endorse a definition of abstinence which includes such intimate activities as “kissing and hugging only, some sexual touching, everything but sexual intercourse.” When parents hear abstinence defined this way, a recent Zogby poll shows they reject such programs for their children and choose two-to-one a more commonsense definition of abstinence from all sexual activity. The same poll showed 59% supporting increased funding for abstinence education, while only 22% felt that way about comprehensive sex education.
Title V definition: "an educational or motivational program that:
A. Has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
B. Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school age children;
C. Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
D. Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;
E. Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
F. Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society;
G. Teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
H. Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity."
Please correspond to the DC Office through our main location in SD. Abstinence Clearinghouse DC Office
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20004
(202)204-3055
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