Ill Conceived

Abstinence-Only Sex Education

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There's one guaranteed way to never get pregnant or contract a sexually transmitted infection: not having sex. In the 1990s, the United States government expanded efforts to fund programs that taught adolescents this fact. Unfortunately, that funding came with a few restrictions—most notably, the programs weren't allowed to promote or demonstrate any type of contraception whatsoever. This week, June and Josh try to figure out how these abstinence-only until marriage sex education initiatives got so much traction for so long.

***IN EDINBURGH THIS WEEK? Get tickets to the play Josh is directing, THE BOY FROM BANTAY, by clicking here!***

EPISODE ART: A graph from a report commissioned by the United States government to study the effectiveness of four abstinence-only sex education programs. There is no meaningful difference in outcomes between those who participated in the program and those who didn't.

SOURCES:

  • "Budget Widens Teen-Pregnancy-Prevention Efforts" by Laura Meckler (The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2009)
  • "Clinton Fires Surgeon General Over New Flap" by Paul Richter and Marlene Cimons (Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1994)
  • History of Dedicated Federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs FY 1982-2019 from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)
  • "Context counts: Long‐term sequelae of premarital intercourse or abstinence" by Nicole M. Else-Quest, Janet Shibley Hyde & John D. DeLamater (The Journal of Sex Research, 2005)
  • Full text of Section 510, the Separate Program for Abstinence Education
  • "Whatever Happened to the Adolescent Family Life Act?" by Rebecca Saul (Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 1998)
  • "Clinton Frees $250 Million for Sex Abstinence Teaching" by Melissa Healy (Los Angeles Times, March 1, 1997)
  • "Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Programs" report, published by HHS in 2007
  • "Consequences of sex education on teen and young adult sexual behaviors and outcomes" by Laura Duberstein Lindberg & Isaac Maddow-Zimet (The Journal of Adolescent Health, 2012)
  • "Funding for Abstinence-Only Education and Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention: Does State Ideology Affect Outcomes?" by Ashley M Fox, Georgia Himmelstein, Hina Khalid & Elizabeth A. Howell (American Journal of Public Health, 2019)
  • "Sex Education in Public Schools: Sexualization of Children and LGBT Indoctrination" by Cathy Ruse (Family Research Council, 2020)
  • "The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding" fact sheet (Advocates for Youth, 2007)
  • "Abstinence Education: Assessing the Evidence" by Christine C. Kim and Robert Rector (Heritage Foundation, 2008)

    • AUDIO CLIPS:

    • 29:58 - Rush Limbaugh talking about Joycelyn Elders on an episode of the Rush Limbaugh Show ca. 1994
    • 35:30 - Joycelyn Elders in an interview with the National Visionary Leadership Project
    • 1:04:03 - "Learn Gun Safety with Eddie Eagle" children's training video from the National Rifle Association (NRA)

      • FOLLOW THE SHOW:

      • Send us an email: [email protected]
      • Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
      • Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
      • Tumblr: @illconceivedpod

        • FOLLOW JOSH:

        • Website: joshboerman.com
        • Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
        • Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
        • Stream: Traditional Scrench

          • FOLLOW JUNE:

          • Bluesky: @junlper.beer
          • Other podcast: Kill The Computer
          • Writing: June's Substack
            • ...more
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            Ill ConceivedBy Josh Boerman & June Sternbach
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