There is a highly charged social and political debate over sex education in middle and high school. On one side of the debate are those who believe that children in middle and high school should be provided with comprehensive sex education, including information on condoms, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), pregnancy and abortion. On the other side of the debate are those who believe that abstinence-only sex education should be the only sex education offered in middle and high schools. Abstinence-only sex education programs promote abstinence from all sexual activity as the only acceptable standard for school-age children. Advocates of abstinence-only programs also believe that sexual activity outside the context of marriage promotes harmful psychological and physical effects. One of these harmful effects is that comprehensive sex education programs promotes increased sexual activity. As Dan Richey, director of the Louisiana GovernorÆs Program for Abstinence, maintains sexuality, birth control, and other sex education topics promote increased sexual activity. As Richey maintains, ôTalking about contraception is taking children to the edge. Bottom line: When youÆre dealing with teenagers, the more sex information you give, the more sex you getö (McConahay 2004, 26).
Many individuals who promote abstinence-only programs do so because they believe it promotes greater values among teenagers, like monogamy, faithfulness, and marriage as the only proper context for sexual activity. Further, advocates of abstinence-only programs believe that the only certain way of preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), like HIV, AIDS, and herpes, is abstinence. Such individuals also believe that comprehensive sex education programs promote greater sexual activity among teenagers. President Bush is one such individual. In his State of the Union address, the President promised to increase funding and gra...