Study credits abstinence programs with drop in teen pregnancy

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--A new study released by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. shows that abstinence programs such as True Love Waits, which challenge young people to abstain from sexual activity until marriage, dramatically reduce the rate of out-of-wedlock births.

Baptist Press reports from the study that adolescent girls who pledge to abstain from sex are about 40 percent less likely to give birth than other adolescents who do not make such a pledge. Those who participate in abstinence programs are also 12 times more likely to be virgins when they marry, according to the study.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health reported on adolescents participation in abstinence programs and sexual activity from junior high school through young adulthood, beginning in 1994. That was one year after LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention launched its True Love Waits abstinence program.

The study also found that public abstinence pledges remain powerful even six years later and that the adolescents and young adults who make those pledges are less likely to initiate sex, have fewer sexual partners and are more likely to marry.

Other factors such as socio-economic differences and religiosity were also taken into account. When the findings were adjusted for those types of differences the rate of out-of-wedlock births dropped 50 percent. The study found that 29 percent of teen girls who had not made an abstinence pledge had a child out of wedlock, contrasted with only about 14 percent of girls who had made a pledge.

"The current findings strongly suggest that abstinence education programs that clearly encourage young people to delay sexual activity can, potentially, have a large positive effect on youth behaviors and life outcomes," said Kirk Johnson, a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation.

Johnson said roughly one-third of all births in the U.S. are out of wedlock. Children raised by single parents are seven times more likely to live in poverty.

The social and economic results of abstinence programs were part of the impetus for the recent study. True Love Waits, however, emphasizes the spiritual, emotional and physical well-being of adolescents being maintained best through abstinence since human sexual relationships are mainly emotional and moral, not merely physical.

The Heritage Foundation is a research institute that uses social science research to formulate and promote conservative public policies.