Abstinence-only programs: Scientific evidence, ethical decisions and professional obligations

Abstinence until marriage has been a goal of many abstinence-only sex education programs. However, research studies report that most Americans initiate sexual intercourse during adolescent years and before marriage. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that approximately 49% of 12th grade high school students are currently sexually active. Additional studies have found that by age 20, 77% of young people in the US have initiated sex and by age 25 over 90% of people have had sex, with only about 3% waiting for marriage. Furthermore, a growing amount of research documents that abstinence-only programs and policies are ineffective. In response to this reality, several states have rejected federal money attached to abstinence–only programs because such programs do not work and there exists a need to reduce the risk of STIs, unintended pregnancy and other related harms among young people.

This presentation, from an ethical perspective, argues that the current state of knowledge obligates health professionals to criticize the promotion of ineffective abstinence-only programs and debate the morality of such ineffective and misleading programs that ignore truth and allow harm to exist. An argument is presented, based on the moral principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice and telling the truth, that the value of real lives and prevention of real disease outweighs the value of accepting and promoting the unrealistic ideology of abstinence-only programs.