Unit 1: Short Pieces Form and Method

Title: Total Abstinence is the Way to Go

Teh Boon Siang

Mr Boucher

E3U

August 9, 2010
 Today, news about teenage girls getting themselves pregnant is no
longer uncommon. In fact, some of these teenage parents managed to
make the headlines all over the world. Take British Alfie Patten for
example who shocked the world when he became the youngest father in
the world at age thirteen after impregnating his fifteen-year-old girlfriend,
Chantelle. Another famous example of a teenage parent would be Bristol
Palin, the teenage daughter of the infamous former Alaskan governor,
Sarah Palin. She gave talks on the concept of total abstinence as a
teenage mother herself and fully supports this concept. The extent of this
social evil is so widespread that according to studies, about 40%
unmarried teenage have had at least an unwanted pregnancy and about
fourteen million children are born annually to teenage mothers (AVERT-
Averting HIV and AIDS). The solution? Total abstinence; which is the only
way to effectively curb teenage pregnancy as it is a 100% guarantee and
that contraceptives are not effective and emotional and social stigmas
can be avoided.

Total abstinence is truly the way to go about curbing teenage

pregnancy as it is a guarantee that teenage pregnancy will not take place.
Through total abstinence programmes, teenagers are taught the
importance of delaying sexual intercourse until marriage. This way, the
biological process of reproduction is prevented from taking place and
therefore, teenage pregnancy can be avoided. If combined with proper
sex education programmes, teenagers can be taught to abstain from sex
at least until marriage. It is also through these programmes that myths
pertaining to sex are broken and the biological details made known to
teenagers, creating awareness in them before they make the wrong
choice of engaging in sex.

It is not uncommon to hear about ineffective contraceptives and

even if they do, they are often not used by teenagers. This may be caused
by either ignorance or the lack of sex education where teenagers may not
even know of its existence and therefore do not use them at all. Also, the
incorrect use of contraceptives such as condoms is as good as not using
one during sexual intercourse, leading to a greater risk of teenage
pregnancy. Also, teenagers are shy and afraid to purchase contraceptives
as this will reveal “dirty secrets” about them and hence, they choose not
to use them. So, why suffer and worry about all of these when they can be
spared by just abstaining from sex?

Last but not least, teenagers can be exempted from the emotional
and social stigmas of being teenage parents through total abstinence.
Teenage parents are often despised by the society and are therefore
deprived of proper educational and job opportunities. Also, without total
abstinence, social issues such as sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancies
and infanticide will arise. Teenagers are really unprepared to be parents
and it is only by abstaining from sex that these will never happen to them.
Also, teenagers will suffer from emotional distress if they were to be
parents and feelings of depression and suicidal thoughts will come rushing
and occupy their fragile minds, causing their lives to be a total nightmare.
However, as prevention is better than cure, proper and effective sex
education with the concept of abstinence will of course prevent these
social evils from tainting their precious lives.

In conclusion, although statistics are not on the side of total

abstinence, it is still a more effective way of curbing teenage pregnancies
and has been proven so in some American states (Alagiri, Collins and
Summers). It is a guarantee that unwanted teenage pregnancies or
whatsoever will never take place and that contraceptives are often
ineffective. Teenagers can also be spared the emotional and social
stigmas of being a teenage parent as well. However, parents must also
shoulder the responsibility of protecting their children and educate them
about sex. With efficient execution of effective sex education
programmes, there is sure to be total elimination of this terrible social
evil.
Works Cited
Alagiri, Priya, Chris Collins and Todd Summers. Abstinence Only vs.
Comprehensive Sex Education. March 2002. 5 August 2010
<http://ari.ucsf.edu/science/reports/abstinence.pdf>.

AVERT- Averting HIV and AIDS. 11 June 2010. 6 August 2010 <file:///G:/essay
%20E3U/abstinence.htm>.