Blog: Angioseal Procedure

For over 20 years the federal government has been funding programs that teach public school youth that the only way to avoid unwanted pregnancy is to “just say no” to premarital sex, despite a lack of empirical evidence that these “abstinence-only” sex education programs are effective. According to the World Health Organization (2004), the rate of teen pregnancy (in women age 10-19) in the United States is the highest of any industrialized country in the world. An estimated one million teens become pregnant each year in the United States. Seventy-eight percent of these pregnancies are unwanted (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1999).

Risks of Teen Pregnancy

High teen pregnancy rates present significant economic, health and social consequences. According to the Seattle & King County Public Health Department (2003), teen mothers are less likely to finish school, are more likely to be single parents and are at higher risk of poor birth outcomes. Teen pregnancy is a public health issue, as well; babies born to adolescents often suffer from low birth weight, developmental problems, and high rates of abuse and neglect (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 1998).

Teenage parenthood can also lead to poverty and social isolation (World Health Organization, 2004). As teen mothers are more likely to depend on welfare and other forms of public assistance, teen pregnancy costs society an estimated seven billion dollars a year in lost tax revenues, child health care, foster care and the criminal justice system (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 1998). As such, high teen pregnancy rates negatively impact community and economic development.

Abstinence-Only Programs

Abstinence-only programs were first funded in 1981 through the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA), an $11 million public education program that promoted chastity, self-discipline, and promoted explicitly religious values (SIECUS, 2005). In 1998, through Title V, Section 510 of the Social Security Act, Congress authorized $50 million per year (to be matched in $30 million in state funds) for funding of programs that “teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for school-age children” (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2002).

Programs funded under Title V must explicitly prohibit teaching about contraceptive methods except when emphasizing failure rates; after 1998, AFLA programs were also excluded from teaching about birth control except when discussing the potential ineffectiveness or failure of such methods (Landry et al., 2003; U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2002).

By withholding medical information about contraceptives and sexually transmitted disease prevention methods, abstinence-only programs do not provide teens with the information that they need to make informed choices about their own sexuality. Several abstinence programs have come under legal scrutiny for disseminating misinformation. Among other medical inaccuracies, lawsuits have included such incorrect information as that a 10-week-old fetus "learns and remembers things, hears, sees, and has a personality,” "no controlled scientific study supports the value of condoms in helping to protect against sexually transmitted diseases including HIV," and "following abortion, women are prone to suicide" (Kenny et al., 2003). Such programs became palatable to many communities because they provided messages that adults were eager to hear: If we don't tell our young people anything about sex, they won't have it (Kreinin, 2003).

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