THE SEX FILES: Just Say No…Thank You

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I love this quote I’m stealing from this week: “…anecdotal evidence does not scientific data make. Data is plural for datum. A single datum is not enough to establish a pattern or to induce a cause-and-effect relationship. This is why scientists perform repeatable experiments when they are ethically feasible. When it is impossible to perform an experimental investigation, correlational research is done in the most rigorous way possible” and further “There exists no scientific evidence that abstinence-only education delays the initiation of sexual intercourse in teenagers. It also does nothing to reduce teen pregnancies nor STIs. In fact, abstinence-only education is positively correlated with teen pregnancy and birth rates.”

Yet here in the U.S. we have a Federally funded abstinence education program which has funneled nearly $179 million bucks to our states for abstinence education programs since 1998.

I double-dog dare you to reread that sentence and not get pissed-off.

Under our current admin (not a conservative one to be sure, the people we usually assume will be all-in for this kind of malarky) Title V (abstinence-only) funding has been extended to the states for another five years! Incredibly, only 13 states even require that the information presented in sex education classes be medically accurate…maybe that’s one of the reasons abstinence-only education doesn’t stick?

Actually, I think it’s because kids want to fuck, pure and simple. I think that raging hormones might lead you to some dangerous activities at any age and that rubbing pink parts against the pink parts of someone you are attracted to feels too good not to do. No matter what kids are taught, they are just like adults not going to want to stop their sexual activities once they begin them.

From theologians to statesmen, to your parents and even your very best friends, there will always be people who are down on getting-down or at least down on engaging multiple partners. And while I will champion anyone’s right to do what they want or not want to do with their body, I damn well don’t want to spend federal funds on educating people in a program that has been shown to be scientifically unsound and one that presents a lifestyle choice I feel is up to the individual to decide and not for our government to mandate.

Ultimately abstinence-only education promotes sexual abstinence until marriage (I smell a religious text in the mix, don’t you…ah, once again that good old church/state separation we think exists in our government but really doesn’t) and avoids even the discussion of contraceptive methods. Contrarily a comprehensive sex education program, one which would offer the options of contraceptive use as well as abstinence (which I recall learning way back in high school before electricity was invented) seems to me a more powerful use of tax dollars.

But really, what do I know? I am just one anecdotal voice, a single datum trying to just get laid like you.

What are you’re thoughts?

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