Comments on: Abstinence-Only Education Fails Again

By: Bryan Pesta

Bryan Pesta — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:58:09 +0000

Hi Hemant!

I have a very similar article in press in the journal, Intelligence. We show that religiosity links to many negative outcomes.

If interested, here’s a draft (pre type set):

http://home.comcast.net/~gregm766/BJPesta_intel_2a.pdf

By: naath

naath — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:31:27 +0000

I think there’s a problem with saying “fails” here. I don’t think that the advocates of abstinance-only education think this is a failure, because I don’t think that what they want is what we want (that is, for women to choose if and when they have children and a low rate of teen pregnancy). I think that what they want is for women to marry and have children at a young age, and if necessary they’ll go with the (traditional) practice of pushing girls into marrying the baby daddy when they get pregnant at a young age.

So I don’t think it’s possible to change their minds by pointing at the teen-pregnancy stats. Unfortunately the problem is harder

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:10:39 +0000

From a nurse's perspective, these statistics are not surprising- but from my day to day dealing with it, it obviously leaves out things that might happen between conception and birth.

By: Philbert

Philbert — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:40:12 +0000

The government publishes statistics on abortion. It should not be too hard to produce a ranking of states by total abortions + live births.

By: martymankins

martymankins — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:34:51 +0000

Utah’s position surprises me, in a good way. We used to be way up on the list not that long ago.

By: cypressgreen

cypressgreen — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:42:02 +0000

Nothing fails like prayer.
Except abstinance education.

By: Demetrius Of Pharos

Demetrius Of Pharos — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:07:18 +0000

I was about to call shenanigans on the data from Utah, based on the fact that people seem to be more likely to get married young here, but Sarah beat me to it. So I will simply say that the study doesn’t say anything about married teens, which I’m betting would change the results a bit. (The religious states would still have more, I think, but there are probably other factors.)

By: Siamang

Siamang — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:00:14 +0000

Also, young Mormons (called elders) are sent out of the state and the country on highly supervised missions.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:42:01 +0000

As for Utah. I was reading “The Secret Lives of Saints”. In the book the author mentioned that often teen pregnancies aren’t reported as teen pregnancies in Mormon communities because the girls are “married’. As a result they tend to fly under the radar a bit.

By: Siamang

Siamang — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:45:49 +0000

What’s next? A driver’s education class that teaches you to stay away from cars?

Great line.