The not-so-dirty secret about religious moral practices being applied to public health is that it does not work. At all. Abstinence education has shown zero positive effect in reducing teen pregnancy. Maybe that’s because the “rules” in the bible and other such documents came from a time when girls were usually pregnant by the age they reached immediately after puberty (typically 12 or 13). But you know what does help unwanted pregnancy? Contraception. Also known as “safe sex.”
From 2007 to 2013, births to teens age 15 to 19 dropped by 36 percent; pregnancies fell by 25 percent from 2007 to 2011, according to federal data.
But that wasn't because teens were shunning sex. The amount of sex being had by teenagers during that time period was largely unchanged, says the study, which was published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. And it wasn't because they were having more abortions. Abortion has been declining among all age groups, and particularly among teenagers.
How is that happening? Same amount of sex but less pregnancy? We are going to have to ask some kind of high-level mathematician to figure this out, right? The researchers found that more contraception use and better contraception options have led to the declining rate of teen pregnancy. Maybe we should just ask someone who can chew gum and walk at the same time?
Valerie Huber, who advocates for programs that urge teens to wait to have sex rather than provide information about contraception, says the study is biased toward birth control.
"As public health experts and policymakers, we must normalize sexual delay more than we normalize teen sex, even with contraception," said a statement from Huber, president and CEO of Ascend, a group that promotes abstinence education. "We believe youth deserve the best opportunity for a healthy future."
It seems like Ms. Huber doesn’t understand math or facts or evidence of facts that simple math can solve.