Abstinence was never something I thought about growing up. Going to a catholic boarding school was my first introduction to what it was. Our freshmen year we were required to take three-week-long sex, drug, and alcohol education course, which was more focused on how to avoid it and less so on the science of each. In those three weeks, the school nurse along with the monks that lived on campus told us horror stories from having sex out of wedlock, and what too much alcohol can do to your body. What stuck out to me the most, however, was when Father Francis singled out the girls in the class and told us it was our job to not tempt the boys. The pressure to remain celibate till marriage was placed on a group of fourteen-year-old girls who were already confused with their bodies. That lesson has stuck with me, even now at 18, I feel guilt and pressure that I am sure my brothers and male friends have never had to deal with. In 1996 under President Bill Clinton Title V section 510 of the Social Security Act was passed which allowed the federal government to start granting $50 million a year to state governments to give to the abstinence-only until marriage industry. This act has yet to be overturned thus encouraging abstinence-based programs. There has been a debate for decades over whether or not schools should be teaching abstinence or not. On one hand, people argue that teaching abstinence will help teach kids to save themselves for marriage and that abstinence is the most effective form of birth control. On the other hand, many argue that teaching abstinence fails to provide enough facts for young people to make an educated decision about losing their virginity. They also believe that teaching abstinence is unrealistic. Studies show that 7 in 10 people will lose their virginity by their nineteenth birthday. It is more important to teach kids how to have safe sex rather than how to avoid it in order to be safe. As someone who has been taught abstinence, I thoroughly believe that it does more harm than good. Abstinence-based teaching ends up doing more harm than good and pushes the out-of-date narrative that sex is inherently bad.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at St. John's chapter.