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by Karen Testerman

We are facing a plague of massive proportions, a plague made more sinister because it attacks not only adults but our youth. What is this crisis? It is a pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that is encouraged by a message of "safe sex" and an adult population that acts as if self-control and traditional morality are outdated and without value.

Society focuses on the increase in out-of-wedlock and teen births. Meanwhile STDs tear through our youth and adult population at alarming and deadly rates. Pregnancy is seldom fatal (except for aborted babies), but the STDs of today are. They are "not your father's" STDs, which were few and easily cured with penicillin (see sidebar).
        In the 1960s, syphilis and gonorrhea were the two most prevalent STDs; today, there are more than 20 and some have as many as 80--100 strains. Despite the fitting publicity that the deadly epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune disorder syndrome (HIV/AIDS) commands, according to research at the University of New Mexico, human papilloma virus (HPV), not HIV, is the most common STD transmitted today.
        What is the magnitude of the problem? According to recent testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, "Three to four million STDs are contracted yearly by 15- to 19-year-olds, and another five to six million STDs are contracted annually by 20- to 24-year-olds."
        Perhaps the most tragic aspect of this plague is the role adults play in it. Failures by grown-ups are the primary cause of the pandemic among our youth. Adults are failing our children by promoting a fatal message about sex: both in education and in actions. Youth are allowed to believe that there is such a thing as safe sex outside of marriage and that any sexual practice is acceptable as long as the participants are smiling.

Marketing sex

Billboards, TV, magazines, movies, and catalogs promote the message that sex is the way to be cool, to fit in, to solve life's challenges. Today, the initial onset of sexual activity is occurring at younger ages, while couples delay the decision to marry or prefer cohabitation. Dr. Meg Meeker, a pediatrician and author of Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing Our Kids, reports that half of all students in the ninth through twelfth grades have had sexual intercourse. Additionally, the average age for the onset of puberty in girls has dropped from 12 to 10.
        There are physical and emotional consequences of engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage. Unwed childbearing costs American taxpayers $29 billion a year in social services, lost tax revenue, and the consequences of delinquency and poverty among teenage parents. These teens will enter adulthood disadvantaged and will convey this disadvantage to their children.
        In 1960, 15 percent of teen births in the United States were out-of-wedlock. More recently, despite the reduction in teen pregnancy, the out-of-wedlock birthrate was 78 percent among teens, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (2000).
        Meanwhile, the No. 1 indicator of poverty in our nation is single-parent households among 15- to 19-year-olds. Ninety percent of these young people will never attend college. Eighty percent of women who choose to parent while they are teens will live at the poverty level for 10 years or more.
        Linda Waite, professor of urban sociology at the University of Chicago, and Maggie Gallagher, affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values, have found that children born to unmarried mothers are more likely to die in infancy. Boys raised in single-parent homes are twice as likely to commit a crime that leads to incarceration by their early thirties.
        Adolescents raised by single parents or stepfamilies are more likely to engage in sexual intercourse and to be sexually active at an earlier age, according to Dawn M. Upchurch, professor at the UCLA School of Public Health. None of this takes into account the impact of postabortive trauma or the emotional trauma of making tough decisions to allow adoption so that the child will have better opportunities.
        The data are stark, but the true disaster is the damage wreaked by STDs. A girl is four times more likely to contract an STD than she is to become pregnant. Today, it is likely that a young mother has on average 2.3 STDs. Syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, chlamydia, hepatitis A and B, HIV, and HPV are the most common. Many of the viral STDs have multiple strains.

Sexual Russian roulette

A leading risk factor is the number of sexual partners. Vital health statistics directly link this factor to the early onset of sexual activity. Consider the teen who has sex with 6 people, each of whom has 6 partners. According to Dr. Meeker, this means that 36 people have been exposed to disease.
        Marcel T. Saghir, coauthor of Male and Female Homosexuality: A Comprehensive Investigation, cites the magnification of this problem in the homosexual community, even among those who define themselves as monogamous. The average such relationship among homosexual males lasts less than three years. Despite attempts to portray their choice for living as normal and healthy, homosexuals are in the highest risk group for several of the most serious STDs.

        Evidence from the National Cancer Institute that smoking shortens a person's life by 7--10 years led to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by state governments. However, despite numerous studies that reveal homosexual relationships can reduce male or female lives by 10--30 years, tolerance and political correctness reign.
        As even homosexual supporters and the media admit, the increasing pressure to accept homosexual practices as mainstream is dramatically affecting our society. According to the New York Blade News Reports, gay men are in the highest-risk group for several of the most serious diseases, including STDs.
        Instability and promiscuity are characteristic of homosexual relationships. Even the Gay Lesbian Medical Association agrees with mainstream reports that, despite decades of intensive efforts to educate, HIV/AIDS continues to increase among the homosexual community.
        According to another homosexual newspaper, the Washington Blade, HPV is "almost universal" among homosexuals. HPV, often asymptomatic, is believed to be the causative vector of cervical cancer in women. It can also lead to anal cancer in men.
        Add to this the confusion about what constitutes sexual activity. Is it just penile penetration of the vagina? Does oral sex count? Is heavy petting to be included? What about practices of homosexuals? Common wisdom seems to promote the idea that these questions are irrelevant, as a condom can prevent the passing of bodily fluids, and thus HIV/AIDS.

Beyond bodily fluids

Sadly, this misconception leads to even more danger, as the passing of body fluids is not the only way to contract these diseases. Even a properly used and defect-free latex condom will not completely protect against all STDs. Any genital contact can cause an infection! Genital warts are the common name for HPV. The most common and contagious of STDs, HPV is passed by skin-to-skin contact. It is the leading cause of cervical cancer and in its cancerous form does not exhibit any symptoms.
        Alas, most of our sexually active, infected youth do not know they have a disease. Some viruses can lie dormant in the body for up to 30 years before symptoms develop. Ninety percent of those infected with chlamydia exhibit no symptoms and receive no treatment.
        According to abstinence speaker Pam Stenzel, the statistics of this disaster are staggering, especially among our youth. Every day in America, 12,000 teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease. How many is an acceptable loss?

        The American Medical Association recommends that sexually active girls be tested for chlamydia every six months. Why just girls? Aren't boys infected as well? Yes, men carry the infection, but as is often the case, girls endure most of the consequences. Stenzel points out that the female reproductive system is open; scar tissue builds up on the cervix, fallopian tubes, and ovaries as a result of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) from the chlamydia infection.
        With a single chlamydia infection, there is a 25 percent chance of sterility. With a second infection there is a 50 percent chance of sterility. If there is a third infection, it is almost certain that the girl will be sterile--all due to PID.
        This is why, some people reason, we should promote a dual message and sell teens on abstinence with "safe sex" as a backup. The dual message approach says that abstinence is best, but if you choose to engage in genital contact, use some form of contraception, usually condoms. This comprehensive message indicates that our youth are no more than bundles of uncontrollable hormones--that they are no more than mere animals. Many public school sexuality education programs instruct youth in the proper use of condoms and contraception. The information given is that condoms significantly reduce the chance of STD infection.
        In reality, even if a condom is used 100 percent of the time, a sexually active young person is at risk to contract STDs including gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis. Even when used, a condom fails to prevent pregnancy 12 percent of the time, according to the Maryland Center for Mental and Child Health. Despite faithful use of the condom, the person who engages in genital contact is not immune from contracting an STD that spreads through skin-to-skin contact.
        It is time that adults cleaned up their act and encouraged youth to aspire to achieve the goal of being responsible, thinking people. Young people need adults who will trust them enough to give them the information they need to make good choices.

Knowledge is power

Young people need to know that sex without boundaries is deadly. There are consequences when engaging in genital contact outside the bonds of marriage. Young people need to know that both parties should wait until they make a lifelong commitment to one another in marriage to have sex. Within marriage, they have a better chance to be healthier, to attain a higher level of education, to be financially secure, to be happier and enjoy sex more, but only if that sex is with their marital partner.
        The only way to protect against STDs that can have lifelong, physically and emotionally painful consequences is to abstain from genital contact outside of marriage. According to the University of Chicago research in Sex in America, researchers report that when a marriage is intact, the couple almost never have sex outside their marital relationship.
        Promiscuous sexual practices, whether heterosexual or homosexual, are highly costly to Americans. The health of present and future generations is in jeopardy. The idea that avoiding pregnancy or homosexual behavior is enough is dangerous. This attitude completely ignores the possibility and consequences of exposure to STDs. Add to this the disease of substance abuse and emotional trauma due to abortion, depression, anxiety, and subsequent problems, and it is clear that one should avoid promiscuity at all costs.
        Despite the rhetoric, everyone is not doing it! Over 50 percent of our youth are not engaging in genital contact with one another. Given the information, our young people are capable of making informed decisions. Once we realize this, we can give them (and society) a future without this plague.
        The promiscuous plague has many facets. Messages in the media, peer pressure, alcohol, and drugs all influence teen sexual behavior. The biggest influences, of course, are parents. The actions of young people reflect what adults transmit. This is done through how adults behave and what is communicated as acceptable. By allowing the media to undermine morality, the plague is fostered. By engaging in dangerous sexual practices, the plague is encouraged.
        More important, by abdicating parental responsibility, the plague is promoted. A recent survey of teens conducted by L.B. Whitbeck, professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska, found that parents have the strongest effect on a teen's decision whether to have sex. Parents influence the attitude of their teens by their own marital status, their attitudes, the amount of supervision they provide, and how involved they are with their children.
        Ultimately, the most effective inoculation against this plague is effective parenting. Certainly parenting would be made easier if the entertainment media reduced their hard sell of "anything goes" sex and schools truly taught nonmarital abstinence and credited our youth with the ability to use good sense. If given the opportunity, teens can and will make good choices. Our next generation needs to know it is okay to say no!

Karen Testerman is executive director of Cornerstone Policy Research, a family policy think tank located in Concord, New Hampshire. She has taught anatomy and physiology at the secondary-school level and sits on the New Hampshire Abstinence Task Force.