[afro-nets] NYT EDITORIAL: The Abstinence-Only Delusion (2)

["Johanne Sundby" <johanne.sundby@medisin.uio.no>]

NYT EDITORIAL: The Abstinence-Only Delusion (2)
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Thank you for sharing this editorial with us. Those of us that have worked with sexual education of young people for decades, including constructing and applying various comprehensive curricula, and trying them out on a variety of groups of young people, knew this, of course, but reason, science and experience does not work as well as a moral(istic?) argument.......it seems. Abstinence as a strategy may work for some, but abstinence only PROGRAMS do NOT work for most young people in or before the "sexually active age span". The education they need to enter a sexual life with happiness and enjoyment, free of fear and injury; to protect themselves from sexual harm and violence, unwanted pregnancy, STD and unhappy relationships has to start as early as possible (around here we start in pre-school...), and has to enable the young boys and girls to say 'no' when that feels right and 'yes' when that seems a good option, and to know how to protect themselves against unwanted side effects of their choice. Teaching them to have self pride; and to say 'no' when a sexual encounter is not safe, emotionally and otherwise, is as important as to reveal that they, themselves, can set some of the conditions for wanting to say 'yes' when that seems a nice thing to do. And we need to assist them in applying their knowledge by providing services, all types, when they need it. Including condoms, pills, std testing, emergency contraceptives and HIV tests. We take our school kids to these services long before they need them - so they know where they are and what they offer. They come back when they have the need.

I have written about this  theme in a recent article in an OB/GYN journal. In a 'human rights for young people' framework.

Johanne Sundby, MD, OB/GYN
Professor (and no longer young)
University of Oslo
mailto:johanne.sundby@medisin.uio.no