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Does Abstinence-only Sex Education Work?

Aired April 23, 2002 - 11:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the landmark 1996 Welfare Reform Law provided millions of dollars to the states to teach abstinence to teenagers. Well, we wonder now, is it working? A house subcommittee is going to focus on that in a hearing later on today, and whether Congress should continue to pay for this program. Our guests this morning that are going to be debating that issue in just a moment, but first, CNN Medical News Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, as you see here, is joining us now with some background here.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HARRIS: Good morning. Good to see you.

COHEN: How are you?

HARRIS: Fine, how are you?

COHEN: Good, I am doing fine.

HARRIS: All right. What's the word?

COHEN: Let's talk about pregnant teens. Well, 1 million teenagers become pregnant every year. And actually, that statistic has come way down. About ten years ago, 22 percent more teenagers became pregnant every year. And actually, the folks who are in favor of abstinence education are taking credit for that decrease. Let's take a look at these programs and what they entail.

In abstinence education, it's taught that sex outside of marriage has helpful -- I'm sorry, harmful physical and psychological effects. It is also taught that abstinence is the only certain way to avoid pregnancy and STDs. It is also taught -- children are taught the failure rates of contraception. In other words, they are not taught about contraception per se, which one is better or not, they are just taught about how it often fails, and how they ought to try abstinence instead.

Now, the other side says, You know what, it is fine to teach abstinence. That is a good thing. We ought to be teaching our kids abstinence. Programs like the one that you see here, where kids are signing what are called purity cards, true love waits, wait until marriage to have sex, and they sign these pledges.

The folks who are in favor of birth control education say, That's great, and we are all for that, but they say in addition, for the kids who are going to have sex, and they say they are going to have it anyhow, we ought to be teaching them how not to get pregnant. They say that by the time a child turns -- if you look at all kids, by the time they turn age 18, 70 percent of them will have had sex. So they say, why not give them the tools so that the girls don't become pregnant.

HARRIS: But you know what, a lot of that is all anecdotal sort of stuff. Is there any science at all that says whether or not one way or another works, or whether anything works at all.

COHEN: Right. There have been a couple studies. Each side sort of cites different studies to show that their side is right. For example, in California, they started abstinence education. And according to the folks who are pro-birth control Education, they said the abstinence education didn't work. The teen pregnancy rates did not come down, and that is why California is the only state in the Union to just say no to this abstinence education money.

They said, look, we tried it, it didn't work. But on the other side, the folks who are in favor of abstinence education say that in places like Monroe County, New York, they started abstinence education and it did work. The teen pregnancy rates came down. So there is sort of science on both sides, depends who you ask.

HARRIS: OK. Well, we are about to ask some from both sides right now. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Let's get right to it. We are going to bring these two experts in to talk about government funding of abstinence education, and about what works and what doesn't.

Dr. David Kaplan is the head of adolescent medicine and professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado. And also with us this morning is Jacqueline Del Rosario. She heads a program called Recapturing the Vision. It uses federal money to teach abstinence only to South Florida teens.

And both guests appeared today at the House hearing later on today. They are with us right now in our Washington bureau. Good morning. We thank you very much for both of you coming in, and I'm glad that both of you were seated in time to hear Elizabeth's report here. We are going to get to these comments, or your thoughts about that, and about the science behind it, but first off, I want to start off with what you two are going to be saying in your testimony this afternoon. Dr. Kaplan, let's start with you. What is it that you are going to be saying?

DR. DAVID KAPLAN, PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Well Leon, I think we really need a balanced approach in this country to protect our youth against the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV, and pregnancy. Just trying to censor our youth, so that they don't understand how to protect themselves, is not good public policy.

HARRIS: All right, Ms. Del Rosario, you, your thoughts on this, and what is it that you will be saying this afternoon? JACQUELINE DEL ROSARIO, RECAPTURING THE VISION: Well, the first thing that I will be saying is that abstinence education is not going to be the only type of education. For the past 30 years, sex education and contraceptive instruction is being taught, as a matter of fact, in our city we do have, and have had it for over 20 years. Abstinence is another message that basically deals with building young teenagers, and so I think it is a massage that is worth hearing, and it is working profoundly in our city.

HARRIS: OK. Dr. Kaplan, how about that?

KAPLAN: Well, the problem with the legislation is that it really does not allow those programs that are funded with the abstinence-only funding are not allowed to teach contraception, and we know now that kids are waiting longer and longer to get -- to get married, and at some point are likely to become sexually active, and at that point, they really have to know how to protect themselves against STDs and pregnancy.

HARRIS: So your concern -- it sounds like you are preparing them for more young adulthood more so than just their teen years?

KAPLAN: Right. It is very difficult to predict when a teenager is going to become sexually active, and we in this country know that education is really the foundation of good public policy, and so kids need to know how to protect themselves when they become sexually active.

HARRIS: Ms. Del Rosario, how about that? If education really is the key here, why put in as much information as you can? If the abstinence message does work, why is it that introducing any other information would take away from that message if it is an effective one?

DEL ROSARIO: Well, the point that I want to make is that it is already in effect, and has been for 30 years. And during that time, we have not seen that pregnancy rates have declined. However, 10 years ago, when the introduction of abstinence-only money came on the scene, and abstinence education courses were taught, there has been a decline. I believe that kids are receiving those messages. It has not impacted them. It has not made the changes that abstinence education-only funding has.

And I believe we are really dealing with a moral issue more than we are also education. Abstinence education also allows the teaching of how to build healthy relationships, and it really begins to rebuild the fiber of our country, which is in family.

HARRIS: And you can't build a healthy relationship if you talk about other methods?

DEL ROSARIO: No, I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is that abstinence education inherent to its congressional guidelines is the institution of the family and marriage, and teaching them how to develop positive relationships, and how to product -- how to perform productively in society and in relationships. And I think that that's a very important component. Kids right now are dealing with very base emotions, and I think we have to bring them to the forefront of love and marriage and sexual intercourse is all about.

HARRIS: Well, how about those other moral issues there, Dr. Kaplan? Not muddling the message would seem to be a rather effective way of getting them to get on board with these ideas.

KAPLAN: You know, I think it is very important for families to discuss their values with their children, and express their concerns. If you look at the reasons why, if you really look at the data as to why pregnancy rates have decreased in this country, by and large, 75 percent of the decrease in rates is due to more effective contraception, especially longer, more reliable forms of contraception that have been introduced. I mean, the abstinence-only funding came in in 1996, and probably was deployed in about 1998, and the trends that we have seen in decreasing pregnancy rates really started in the 1990's, so it is some of that decrease in rate is due to the delaying age of onset of sexual intercourse, but largely the rate decrease is due to better forms of contraception.

HARRIS: I just have one final question this morning for Ms. Del Rosario here. I am just curious about the way the program works. You say there are some 4,000 kids in Florida who have been part of this program. It would seem to me that your success rate would somewhat be tied to the fact that the kids who are in the program are -- they are the ones who want to be in the program to begin with, right, and we are talking here about not necessarily forcing kids who wouldn't be in there anyway to participate in this, and if you have got the kids who want to be there in it already, it is almost a self-fulfilling kind of a prophecy there, is it not?

DEL ROSARIO: It is. What I'm hearing is that kids want us to tell them that we believe that they can abstain, and so that's why I'm very very strong on the message, and I believe whole-heartedly in it.

HARRIS: We are going to have to move on, folks. We have some breaking news coming up, but we sure do appreciate your comments. And we will be watching to see what happens there when you testify this afternoon before Congress. Dr. David Kaplan and Jacqueline Del Rosario, thank you very much, we appreciate it.

KAPLAN: Thank you for having me.

DEL ROSARIO: Thank you.

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