Abstinence Advocate Gives New Teen Pregnancy Study Mixed Reviews
by Mary Rettig
October 18, 2005
(AgapePress) - The president of Abstinence Clearinghouse says she is pleased that a recent study shows that the number of unmarried teenagers getting pregnant has gone down; however, some of the theories cited by the study as to why have her concerned.
The study Unruh is referencing, conducted by Columbia University, found that teen pregnancies are down about a third from their peak in 1991. The researchers credit this trend in part to higher numbers of teens remaining abstinent, but they also say that increased availability of contraceptives has been a factor.
The Abstinence Clearinghouse spokeswoman does not see this increase in the availability of contraceptive devices as a positive trend or a positive influence on youth. "Condoms are passed out in our schools; they are passed out everywhere," she laments. "You can hardly go anywhere anymore that you don't find some condom advertising."
In fact, Unruh notes that the prevalence of condoms can make it difficult to avoid having even very young children be exposed to them. "I was in a gas station the other day and walked out with my little granddaughter, who's eight years old," the abstinence education advocate recalls.
She says the child "looked up and pointed and said, 'What's that?' And we walked out and changed the subject and talked about some other things. It was a condom vending machine."
Also, Unruh was disappointed with the researchers' conclusion that another reason teen pregnancy is down is that girls are more assertive now than they have been in the past. Apparently, according to the Columbia study's authors, more assertive in this case means more likely to carry their own condoms.
That kind of thinking is disturbing to the Abstinence Clearinghouse president, who believes adolescent girls should be taught to be assertive about making the best choice for their sexual health and their future. "We feel very strongly that if the young women are given an abstinence-until-marriage program, they're not taught to be [sexually] aggressive as in contraceptive programs," she says, "but they're taught to be young ladies that respect their bodies and wait until marriage."
One of the better theories to emerge from the study -- and one that Unruh found particularly encouraging -- is the idea that parental involvement is key in helping to decrease teen pregnancy rates.
The abstinence education advocate says more parents need to realize that they are supposed to be the ones teaching their children about sex and providing them with the information they need to make wise, healthy sexual choices -- not the public schools, nor Planned Parenthood, nor anyone else. Parents, Unruh contends, are the most important sex educators teens can have.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
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