Adolescent Sexuality and Chastity
Having been involved in the area of adolescent sexuality for two years, I thought it might be appropriate for me to share with you, my fellow physicians , some ideas on the subject. I have been teaching a seven part series, on the chaste approach to sexuality, to teens with unstable, abusive backgrounds, who are currently living in group homes. In light of this involvement, I recently attended a "Contraceptive Technology" conference in Anaheim, sponsored by Planned Parenthood and the California Family Planning Council. The experience inspired a few thoughts. A panel discussion on adolescent sexuality was conducted at the conference and included two of the co-authors of the familiar text, Contraceptive Technology. During the discussion, one of the panelists dramatically asked for a show of hands in answer to the question , "What is the problem (when considering the general issue of adolescent sexuality)?" He offered three possible answers: teens involved in premarital sexual activity, teen pregnancy, or teens giving birth. The choice was unanimous among the "experts" on the panel: the problem was teens giving birth. It is amazing that after two decades of having defined the problem as the teen pregnancy rate, suddenly the emphasis has been changed to the problem of teens giving birth . What prompted this magical change in emphasis? The change is a result of a gradual realization by those in the field that the simplistic approach of giving teens contraceptives, in an effort to cure the complex problem of teen pregnancy, has failed. Since this approach has failed , and discussion of any other approach is intolerable for most of the recognized "experts", the problem has simply been re-defined . How do we know that promotion of contraceptives to teens has failed to reduce the teen pregnancy rate? Two types of studies which have been