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For Parents l For Pregnancy Centers
Teach Abstinence
Teaching abstinence is providing the safest, healthiest message for teens. Two out of three teens who have been sexually active regret their decision and wish they had waited. Teaching abstinence is what teens need, and what teens want.
The home is the primary place that teens should learn the relationship between sex and marriage, as parents teach abstinence until marriage as the only 100% effective measure to prevent the many consequences of sex. Parents have the largest platform to share the facts about sexual decisions, while continually building an approachable and safe line of communication with their children. Despite what you might think or feel, even if parents regret their own previous sexual choices, you can still teach abstinence until marriage. Mom and/or Dad’s sexual histories do not hold any bearing on the fact that the safest choice for teens is to abstain from sexual activity before marriage.
The classroom is the secondary place that teaching abstinence must be provided for teens as they develop and respond to a confusing world. Ideally, teaching abstinence ought to be the norm for every student, for every year in school, from middle school through the last year of high school. The message is central to healthy decision making, affecting hosts of other decisions, thus it is worth the repetition. Teaching abstinence provides teens with many opportunities to respond with questions and express the real challenges behind the choice to remain abstinent until marriage.
Teaching abstinence is a choice parents, teachers, school administrators, and elected officials must wrangle with to offer teens the opportunity to choose the safest, healthiest lifestyle. While abstinence education focuses on the effects of sexual activity, it views the consequences holistically as to how teens could be affected emotionally, physically, socially, and financially. Teaching abstinence also teaches good character traits, such as self-control and discipline, and positively affects teens’ academic achievement.
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