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Originally Posted by sixpakistan
Yeah, I was evaluating effectiveness based on whether or not they engaged in sex, not whether or not they got STDs. Guess it depends on what the goals of the abstinence program are. If it's simply to get young kids to stop having premarital sex for the sake of it, that's one thing, and if it's to reduce STD risk, that's obviously another. In this society you can effectively do the latter, but probably not the former.
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Your post is confusing. They judged the rate of teen sex by the STD rate, since the only way to get an STD is by... well... having sex. I went to public High School, and I can tell you that if you just ask teens about their sexual activity, they will lie and tell you they aren't doing anything (well, they lie to adults, not to their peers).
The goal of abstinence programs (since most of them are pretty religiously based) is to stop kids from having sex. The consequence, naturally, is that if they aren't having sex, STD rates will drop, as will the teen pregnancy rate. The programs that focus more on STD and pregnancy prevention are heavily criticized by the abstinence only camp because they supposedly encourage teens to have sex.