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Oxymoron: Abstinence-only Education

There are many reasons to LOVE Kate Walsh but this one is my favorite...

A new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health is making headlines this week. A nationally representative sample of adolescents, which looked at young people who had taken comprehensive sex education, those who had taken abstinence only education, and those who had no sex education at all, found:

• Adolescents receiving comprehensive sex education had a substantially lower risk of teenage pregnancy than those receiving abstinence-only or no sex education.
• Abstinence-only education had no impact on reducing teen pregnancy, delaying sexual initiation, or reducing STIs.
• Teaching about contraception was not associated with increased risk of sexual activity or sexually transmitted diseases.
• That disadvantaged youth are less likely to have received formal sex education of any kind.
• In short, as the lead researcher, Patricia Kohler, stated “It is not harmful to teach teens about birth control in addition to abstinence.”