“There’s one way to prevent it (pregnancy) and that’s not having sex,” so espouses America’s most famous unwed teen mother, Bristol Palin.
This past Wednesday, National Teen Pregnancy Awareness Day, Palin was offered up via a national media blitz as the new face of the abstinence movement. Curious choice to be sure, particularly since her teen baby-daddy, Levi Johnston, was front and center in his own media push on the same day proclaiming the obvious in his and Palin’s case “I don’t think telling young kids ‘you can’t have sex’ is going to work. It’s not realistic.”
Shoving Palin into the abstinence only spotlight seems even more perplexing when you consider her earlier televised statement this year “abstinence is just not realistic.”
We all know Bristol’s mother, the infamous Sarah Palin, does not believe in “explicit” sex education and that she repeatedly uses her clout as Alaskan governor to thwart any efforts in her state that hint at anything other than strict abstinence when discussing sexual activity among teens. Despite the fact that Bristol herself is a prime example of how that methodology frankly fails, copious amounts of research have demonstrated the same thing.
In 2008 the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that taking an abstinence pledge does not make any difference at all in any sexual behavior among teens. In other words, pledge takers have sex just as often as those teens who do not take the pledge. There is however, one area in which a significant difference between the pledge takers and non-takers is apparent – the former are much less likely to use any form of birth control.
Here are some other facts the abstinence only contingent would be well-advised to consider.
Adolescent pregnancy, birth, abortion and sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates are much higher in this country than in most other developed nations. What’s even more shocking is the fact that at least 25% of America’s sexually active teenagers report they do not use any form of birth control despite being aware of the dangers of doing so and the reality that they have regular sexual intercourse, often with multiple partners, from the age of 17 on.
When asked why they take the risk, these youngsters will tell you, among other things that they are afraid to discuss the issue with their parents or believe their parents would not approve of them using birth control. It’s probably safe to assume Bristol’s mother would have been abjectly opposed to her daughter using birth control. Per the family’s own admission the first time the topic of Bristol’s sexual activity with her boyfriend came up was when she announced her pregnancy to her parents.
Clearly, we fail miserably as a society when it comes to having open, honest, and helpful conversations with our youngsters about the birds and the bees.
While our heads are firmly stuck in the sand as the birds and the bees swarm perilously close to our teenagers we don’t seem to have any problem reacting and ranting when a more public discussion of the topic occurs. The impressive firestorm set off by the federal court’s recent decision to make the morning-after contraceptive pill, or Plan B, available over-the-counter (OTC) to children as young as 17 is a perfect example.
Very few parents, including me and I would bet Sara Palin, want to think of their 17 year old going to a pharmacy to purchase the morning-after pill as easily as they can a package of gum. However, until we start addressing the issue of teen sex head-on and initiate conversations with our children that are based on reality, and not our dreams that our child will wait until their wedding night to have sex, options like the morning-after pill will continue to be developed and frankly needed.
It can’t be sheer coincidence that in countries, like France, Canada and Sweden, where parents report being more open about sex with their teenagers and realistic about the need for effective birth control early on, lower rates of teen pregnancy and abortion exist. It seems then in light of these findings that the debates around promoting abstinence only sex education and whether or not the morning-after pill should be easily accessible to 17 year olds are, if not foolish, then grossly off the mark.
When Bristol Palin declared on “Good Morning America” “I just want to go out there and promote abstinence and say it is the safest choice” we can only hope her parents were waiting in the wings to guide her with more informed and appropriate advice.
Rhonda Hackett of Castle Rock is a clinical psychologist. EDITOR’S NOTE: This online-only guest commentary has not been edited. Guest commentary submissions of up to 650 words may be sent to columns@denverpost.com.
