[NOTE – I write this because of the amount of vitriol expressed in another diary asking whether or not Jenna is still a virgin. So I’ve tried to distill my thoughts on the subject, and back them up, so that we can focus on the question at hand. KJ]
Abstinence only education, or abstinence until marriage programs, began in earnest around 1996, but really took off in 1999-2000. Millions of school children have been exposed to this program. But, as the Journal of Adolescent Health points out “Schools and health care providers should encourage abstinence as an important option for teenagers. ‘Abstinence only’ as a basis for health policy and programs should be abandoned.”
“Schools and health care providers should encourage abstinence as an important option for teenagers. ‘Abstinence only’ as a basis for health policy and programs should be abandoned.”
Follow me below for my "I have no life: diary entry.
In 2001 “President Bush President George W. Bush created a Faith-Based and Community Initiative, made the abstinence programs one of the initiative’s hallmarks and advanced the funding for the programs to $1.5 billion.” According to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform “President Bush has consistently supported the view that sex education should teach “abstinence only” and not include information on other ways to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. White House Spokesperson Ari Fleischer has asserted that “abstinence is more than sound science, it’s a sound practice . . . . [A]bstinence has a proven track record of working.”
President Bush’s assertions however are not universally accepted. The Academy of Pediatrics states that “Even though there is great enthusiasm in some circles for abstinence-only interventions, the evidence does not support abstinence-only interventions as the best way to keep young people from unintended pregnancy.”
When I read what the President advocates as social policy for the country, then I read that his daughter Jenna, almost 26 years old and awaiting the publication of her first book , is to be married, I have to wonder: how did Abstinence Only Education impact her life? Was she too old to have experienced it? After all she graduated from high school in 2000, and from college in 2004. If she wasn’t affected by the social policy that her father championed for the rest of the country, did her fathers convictions that there should be no sex until marriage play a role in helping Jenna to make her choices as a young woman?
For me, the interesting question is if she was exposed to, and affected by her fathers position, what choice did she make, and why? If she subscribes to her fathers positions that would seem to be to be a vindication, at least for President Bush’s personal beliefs on how he wants his family to grow and develop.
If, however, she did not subscribe to his position does that mean that the President should re-think his policy both in light of his own family’s experience, and in light of studies that show the policy to be unsuccessful.