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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

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As a part of sex ed, you teach that while contraception can prevent a majority of pregnancies, only abstinence can prevent it 100%.

That is demonstrably untrue. Gay sex and lesbian sex carries no risk of pregnancy, and there are plenty of ways for cishet couples to have sex besides PIV which drastically reduces the risk of pregnancy, such as oral or anal sex.

Based on the past success of a sex education focused on abstinence, I think that a sex education which focuses on anal sex would likely be more effective.

There are cases where reasonably proficiently used birth control methods lead to pregnancy, but I would wager that most unwanted pregnancies result from sexual encounters where birth control was either not used at all or used in obviously deficient ways as a result of a lack of advance planning or intoxication.

If you teach students

It is preferable to learn how to use birth control in a safe and comfortable environment. If you are using a condom correctly, the risk of pregnancy is small. If it fails in obvious ways, you should take Plan B. In the unlikely event that it fails in non-obvious ways, you can get an abortion. Carry condoms with you whenever there is a chance you might end up having sex with someone. that will in my estimate lead to a small number of unwanted pregnancies.

However, if you teach students

Birth control methods are not 100%, so the only safe way to avoid pregnancy is not to have sex. Wear these purity rings and remember that only sluts have sex outside marriage. Don't carry condoms, they will only lure you into thinking it is safe to have sex WHEN IT IS NEVER EVER SAFE.

then my prediction is that the median student will not have any planned sexual contacts. As the sex drive is quite strong in late-teenage humans (selection pressure) and most people don't marry and have kids early, it is very likely that at some point -- typically under the influence of alcohol -- the sex drive wins against Jesus. A drunk makeout session after some party is not a good time to learn how to use a condom even if any of the participants had the foresight to bring some. The mixture of shame and booze will likely not help with acknowledging what happened and seeking a morning-after pill, and might also lead to denial about a pregnancy which will eventually either lead to a late-term abortion or an unwanted kid being born, neither of which I consider good outcomes.

Abstinence education treats the sex drive as a lake whose flooding can be prevented by a huge enough dam made out of fear and shame. I would treat it as a river which can't be blocked, but certainly can be channeled in a way in which it is least likely to cause harmful flooding.