Christina Page: Abstinence education not working

Christine Page, author of the fabulous How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex, has a great op-ed out by abstinence only education and the pregnany of Jamie Lynn Spears. Here's a snippet:

The Spears family can't be shocked by much these days. Still, the news last month that 16-year-old Jamie Lynn is pregnant seemed to unsettle them. No matter how well-to-do (or bizarre) the family, it's always a tragedy to have one's child's adolescence taken away by pregnancy. Jamie Lynn Spears is not your average teen, but her situation -- premature parenthood -- is becoming a more common experience for many girls of her generation.

...Abstinence-only programs not only have failed to convince kids not to have sex -- they have led many not to use contraception. To scare teens away from sexual activity, abstinence-only programs focus on the dangers of sex. If contraception is ever mentioned, it is to highlight (and exaggerate) its failure rates. If a girl is told that even if her boyfriend uses a condom she'll get pregnant once every seven times -- as the popular abstinence program "Choosing the Best Way" instructs -- the incentive to use one dissipates.

Make sure to read the whole thing!