Abstinence Only = Not Abstaining

States with sex education programs that only teach abstinence have higher teen pregnancy and birth rates than states with comprehensive programs in their public schools.

That analysis comes from UGA researchers, led by Kathrin Stanger-Hall. She’s an assistant professor of plant biology and biological sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Stanger-Hall looked at teen pregnancy and birth data from 48 U.S. states, evaluating the effectiveness of sex education programs in public schools. Her results have been published in PLoS ONE, an online journal.

The study provides evidence showing that the type of sex education provided in public schools has a significant effect on teen pregnancy rates, Stanger-Hall said.

“Abstinence-only education in public schools does not lead to abstinent behavior,” said David Hall, second author and assistant professor of genetics in the Franklin College. “It may even contribute to the high teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries.”

In addition to teen pregnancy rates and sex education methods, Hall and Stanger-Hall also considered socioeconomic status, education level, access to Medicaid waivers and the ethnicity of each state’s teen population. Nevertheless, there was still a significant relationship between sex education methods and teen pregnancy: the greater the emphasis on abstinence education in state laws and policies, the higher the rate of teenage pregnancy.

“Because correlation does not imply causation, our analysis cannot demonstrate that emphasizing abstinence causes increased teen pregnancy. However, if abstinence education reduced teen pregnancy as proponents claim, the correlation would be in the opposite direction,” said Stanger-Hall.

The study shows that states with the lowest teen pregnancy rates are the ones that prescribe comprehensive sex and/or HIV education, covering not only abstinence, but also contraception and condom use. States with laws stressing the teaching of abstinence until marriage had significantly higher teen pregnancy rates.

“Advocates for continued abstinence-only education need to ask themselves: If teens don’t learn about human reproduction, including safe sexual health practices to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as how to plan their reproductive adult life in school, then when should they learn it and from whom?” said Stanger-Hall.