Faced with an escalating crisis of sexually transmitted diseases and the advent of a new drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea, abstinence education is about to receive the largest increase in funding since the Obama Administration slashed funding in 2009.
The Family Research Council is reporting on the 2015 “Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines” issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in which it now says that abstinence and monogamy are “the most reliable way” to avoid infection rather than “a reliable way to avoid disease.”
This two-word change makes all the difference, says FRC president Tony Perkins.
“That may not seem like a radical edit to most people, but in this administration, moral purity is as foreign a concept as political transparency,” Perkins says. “After years of burying its head in the sand and throwing billions of dollars at an STD problem it helped create, the government finally admitted what the Bible and common sense made abundantly clear: abstinence and monogamy are the only ways to avoid disease.”
For years, the government’s mentality has been to promote sexual liberalism in schools, prioritize it in health care and arrange for it to be paid by taxpayers. But this sexual liberalism came at the expense of the public health with an explosion of STDs at the rate of 20 million new cases a year and a “monster strain” of gonorrhea that experts say could be worse than AIDS. The medical community is panicking about the spike in chlamydia infections, syphilis, HIV, Hepatitis and herpes, especially because half of all new infections are found in young people.
“As a result, the government is spending $16 billion a year cleaning up the mess it helped make with the ‘if-it-feels-good-do-it’ approach,” Perkins said.
Finally, the CDC is acknowledging that abstinence is the only way to stem the tide. With the House and Senate now under GOP control, Congress just authorized the biggest hike in funding for abstinence education – $50 million – since President Obama slashed it in 2009.
As the American College of Pediatricians states, abstinence programs are good for children because in addition to encouraging them to remain chaste until marriage, “They assist adolescents in establishing positive character traits, formulating long-term goals, and developing emotionally healthy relationships… These programs increase the likelihood of strong marriages and families — the single most essential resource for the strength and survival of our nation.”
Perkins laments the trend among parents to lower expectations for their teens when it comes to sex instead of teaching them self-restraint.
“With or without the government’s help, it’s time for parents to speak up and encourage their teens to do what’s counter-cultural,” he said. “Too many moms and dads think their kids aren’t listening to what they say about abstinence. Think again. Parents are the single biggest influence on their children’s sexual decisions. If the cultural influences from Hollywood and the media are committed to marketing promiscuity and immodesty at every turn, then as parents, we have to be just as committed to helping our teenagers fight those temptations.”
He concludes: “It’s time for parents to challenge their children to live by a higher standard — otherwise, they’ll continue meeting the low standards the culture sets for them.”
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