Abstinence vows, the belief abstinence vows inhibit sex, or the belief many abstinence advocates held a few years back that Le Britney, a young woman who single-handedly brought back four inch heels, body glitter and uncomfortable stirrings in middle aged men, was enjoying night after chaste night with her former boyfriend, Justin T?
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NEW YORK (AFP) - A policy of abstinence-only sex education for American teenagers, endorsed by Church groups and the White House, has almost no effect on the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), according to a new study.
The federal study found that most teenagers who pledged to abstain from sex before marriage not only broke their vows, but also recorded the same STD transmission rate as non-pledgers.
The findings challenge some of the fundamental rationales behind a movement that has attracted several million teenaged adherents in recent years, and has been endorsed by the Christian right and embraced by the administration of President George W. Bush (news - web sites).
Of the 12,000 teenagers included in the eight-year study, 88 percent of those who pledged chastity reported having had sexual intercourse before they married, said lead author Peter Bearman, chairman of the sociology department at Columbia University.
Pledgers within the 12-18 age range did delay the transition to first sex by an average of 18 months, and also tended to have fewer sexual partners than non-pledgers.
However, because pledgers were far less likely to use contraception during their first experience of intercourse, their risk of STD infection and pregnancy was just as high, despite the delay.
"In the American context, the abstinence-only education movement is creating a situation where nobody has adequate information about how to have healthy sexual relationships," Bearman told AFP.
"These two movements, the pledge and abstinence-only education, are in the same family," Bearman said. "Both of them are essentially ideological movements that are designed to block access to knowledge that might be helpful for adolescents in protecting themselves."
The researchers tested the participants for three common sexually transmitted infections -- chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomoniasis -- and found rates were almost identical for the teenagers who took pledges and those who did not.
There are 20 million STD infections each year in the United States, with almost half in the 15-24 age group, even though this group represents only a quarter of the sexually active population.
"Overall, STD rates in the US remain alarmingly high," said Ronald Valdiserri, a deputy director of STD programs at the US government's Centers for Disease Control.
True Love Waits, an abstinence campaign set up by the Southern Baptist Convention, says that 2.4 million young people have signed a virginity pledge since the campaign began in 1993.
The most famous role model for the abstinence movement used to be pop teen-idol Britney Spears who, for years, had been linked with her staunch declaration that she would remain a virgin until she got married.
In July last year, however, Spears admitting sleeping with ex-boyfriend and former N'Sync hunk Justin Timberlake. She also said her squeaky-clean image had been manipulated by her handlers who wanted to keep her legions of fans -- and their parents -- happy.
According to Bearman, his study also showed that pledgers were less likely to interpret sex in the context of STDs.
"So they are less likely to imagine they have an STD, less likely to be worried about getting an STD, and less likely to see a doctor if they think they might have an STD," Bearman said.
"The obvious dynamic is that kids who are pledging are much less likely to have an understanding about how to have a healthy, sexual relationship," he added.
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