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Comprehensive Sex Education is the best way to decrease abortion
By Valerie Jane | April 15, 2008
Fact: In the late 1800’s Sarah F. Norton wrote in the Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly newspaper that a way to end abortion was when “an unmarried mother will not be despised because of her motherhood…”
Eliza Bisbee Duffey wrote in her 1876 book ‘Relations of the sexes’ that a way to end abortion was “Knowledge among women will do much towards decreasing this crime (abortion)…. Tell them the how and the why of the whole matter, and they will discover the wrong themselves.”
In a 1916 edition of Family Limitation Margaret Sanger wrote that “abortions will become unnecessary when care is taken to prevent 
conception. (Care is) the only cure for abortions.” (* For those that may not know - Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, now called Planned Parenthood, and was one of the key players in getting contraception legalized.)
So let’s see, for well over 100 years we have been saying that tolerance, knowledge, education and contraception will reduce abortion. As a society, we listened. We did what was suggested. Every time we became more tolerable, had more knowledge, gave more education and made contraception easier to obtain, abortion Increased. Abortion did not go away. It did not get reduced. It became more popular. It became accepted in society. History has proven that this form of sex education is not the way to reduce abortion numbers.
The Guttmacher Institute has even released statistics that show this. Of course, they didn’t see the connection even though the answers were in the same 10 question quiz. They report that between 1995 and 2002 formal instruction of birth control declined among males from 81% to 61% and it declined among females from 87% to 70%. They report that along with this decline they saw an increase in abstinence education. Among males: 9% to 24%; among females: 8% to 21%. Then they report that between the same years of 1995 to 2002 teen pregnancy decreased 24%. They concluded that this decline was due to increase and correct use of contraception among teens - however less teens were being educated on contraception. So, the less education on contraception resulted in higher use of contraception? They failed to put together that the decrease in comprehensive sex education with an increase in abstinence education resulted in a decline in teen pregnancy.
Warning: Authors rant about to begin - When will we teach that responsibility is the key? When will we teach that for every action there is a consequence and for every consequence there is a responsibility? Making the consequence go away or trying to prevent the consequence from happening is not the answer. It never has been and it never will be. History has more than proven this.
Topics: Myth VS Truth |
June 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
oh my goodness, this is a terrific article, and I really could have used this information the other day! Thanks Valerie!
June 19th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
[…] education and easier access to contraception since the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. See here for previous article. The only thing this has accomplished is more unwanted pregnancies, more […]