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HERALD Columnist |
A friend of mine, a teacher for many years, told me that she misses the end of the school year, where she would see all of the kids she’d been working with and the progress they had made under her tutelage. She said it was truly satisfying to see the fruits of her labor like that.
That got me thinking. In my line of work, I don’t often see the fruits of my labor. I’m a professional speaker. I walk into an auditorium filled with several hundred or several thousand people, I speak to them for an hour or so, and then I leave to climb onto a plane and speak to another auditorium full of people somewhere else. Particularly when I’m speaking about chastity, I like to believe that each teenager walked out of that room with an ironclad commitment to save sex until marriage. But I don’t really know. Whether they took my message to heart, whether they changed their lives — I’ve learned to put all of that into God’s hands.
I began speaking on chastity in 1986, at the very inception of the "abstinence education" movement which gained steam in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s. The educational establishment scoffed at us, telling us we were wasting our time trying to get teenagers to control themselves. Increased contraception use, to them, was the only viable answer and they taught it with gusto — putting condoms on cucumbers, passing pills around the classroom, even opening student contraceptive clinics right on school grounds.
Apparently, however, the only "fruits" they were seeing were the bananas they used for condom practice. The teen pregnancy continued to climb steadily after decades of this kind of education. But they, oddly, were undeterred.
But no more, according to a recent report by the Consortium of State Physicians’ Resource Councils. First of all, the report shows, for the first time in 30 years, a distinct decline in the rates of adolescent pregnancy (down 9.1 percent from 1992 to 1995), adolescent births (down 11.9 percent from 1991 to 1996) and adolescent abortions (down a whopping 24 percent from 1990 to 1995). That alone is truly terrific news. But wait — the news gets better. In the midst of all of this, another interesting statistic: total contraception use among sexually active teenagers actually fell by 14.5 percent between 1988 and 1995.
So let me see if I’ve got this straight: fewer teenagers are using contraception, and yet fewer teenagers are getting pregnant. How could this be?
Yes, my friends, the answer is simple. They are abstaining. Teenagers, those raging hormone factories who we’ve believed for so long to be utterly incapable of controlling themselves, are abstaining from sexual activity. The number of females age 15-19 who have never had sex is up 9.4 percent since 1988, and among males the figure is up 19.3 percent. Among those who have been sexually active, we are seeing signs that they are less sexually active, with 11.7 percent fewer saying they’ve had sex in the last three months, and 15 percent fewer reporting having four partners or more.
So how’s that for fruits? There is not a doubt in my mind that this turnaround, the first in 30 years, is due directly to the "abstinence education" movement. Something happened in the mid-’80’s — many of us heard the call to step out and do something. Coincidence? I think not. We didn’t even know each other and yet we all got the same idea at the same time, and over time we found each other and started working to make things happen. Some developed curriculum. Some developed posters, t-shirts and brochures. Some (like me) just went around talking about it a lot.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not taking any personal credit here. I’m a small player in a very large movement. And I think every player in the movement will agree that it has very little to do with any of us. It’s about God. He initiated it, He makes it work and we’re all along for the ride.
I honestly believe that the "coincidence" of the mid ‘80’s is a direct result of the "conclave" of the late ‘70’s. The Holy Spirit chose as Pontiff a very holy man whose primary area of concern was sexual morality and respect for the dignity of the human person. God knew what He was doing. I am absolutely convinced that this social movement to restore respect for human sexuality is a direct result of the grace of the pontificate of John Paul II.
But, whatever the reason, the news is good. The trend is turning around. On a personal level, my abstinence education friends and I get to see some fruits of our labor for a change.
To quote a Shake ‘n Bake commercial, "And I helped!"
Bonacci is a professional speaker and author.
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 26,
dated July 1, 1999.
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A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder. We must understand that aborting the life of a baby is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so. We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:
"Thou shalt not kill."
A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.
Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs. Please
contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,
to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to
stop, once and for all, Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions
as soon as possible.
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