Abstinence Education, Minority Teens, and Religion

The number of teens getting pregnant, and subsequently giving birth or having abortions, is rising for the first time in 10 years. The general consensus is that eight years of abstinence-only sex education in the nation's public schools during the Bush era have whipped America's youth into uneducated, mindless fornicators that don't bother with Ortho or Trojans.

The matter, however, is more nuanced, especially for Black and Latino youth. While more comprehensive sex ed courses that include safe sex information are certainly useful for the majority of the population, I'm not sure if they are able to strike the right tone among the super-religious.

Black people are far more religious than the general population (79 percent say that religion is "very important in their lives," as opposed to about 56 percent of non-Black Americans) with The Church and all of its ideology looming over sexual decisions. Young Latinos make up half of all Catholics under 40, a group with well-documented, stringent views on (against) sex, birth control, and abortion. Black teens may be Baptist, Methodist, non-denominational or any number of Christian denominations, but the message is often the same: Sex before marriage is a sin that will send you straight to hell.

Yes, we've proven that abstinence-only sex ed isn't effective, even among very religious Black people (three of the four programs studied were in predominantly minority schools). But handing out condoms and telling girls to visit the gyno isn't enough to do the trick either.

While attending public schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods, my sex ed courses began early, occurred often, and were definitely not abstinence-only. In fact, until I transferred to a neighborhood school in a middle-class White area of the city, I had never even heard of abstinence education. And while lots of those abstinence-educated teens were having sex (and talking about it), they were also sneaking visits to Planned Parenthood or clandestinely passing condoms around. Not many of them got pregnant in high school, despite sexual activity. By contrast, among my old classmates -- who had been taught a range of safe sex options since fifth grade -- it wasn't an uncommon occurrence to hear of pregnancies and baby shower announcements.

Part of the issue is the premeditation of sex. Buying condoms or getting a prescription for birth control means that you're thinking about having sex, which is a sin in and of itself. But getting caught up in a passionate moment that results in pregnancy? Well, who can blame you for that? Even the faithful stumble.

So while abstinence-only isn't the answer, current comprehensive sex ed programs are also falling short. Reproductive professionals working to curtail teen pregnancy need to take these environmental and religious factors into consideration, and head back to the drawing board.

Photo Credit: hugrakkra