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Abstinence under fire

St George’s Hospital Medical School, London

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Stammers;
tgstammers@doctors.org.uk

Keywords: sex education; abstinence; sexually transmitted infection; condom; contraception

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, unequivocally states in his first update for this year, that "Evidence does not exist to suggest that abstinence approaches are effective"¹ in reducing teenage pregnancy. This is an extraordinary claim, since there is a wealth of evidence suggesting that abstinence approaches can be very effective in delaying the age of first intercourse, reducing unplanned pregnancy, and lowering rates of sexually transmitted infections.

However unjustified by the evidence, the Chief Medical Officer’s claim might at least be understandable if the "safer sex" approaches which have dominated sexual health education in the UK for decades had led to an overall improvement in sexual health, but this is clearly not the case. Under headlines such as "NHS clinics overwhelmed as promiscuity takes its toll on a whole generation", David Hinchliffe, chair of the Commons Health Select Committee inquiry into sexual health stated, "Frankly the . . . [Full text of this article]

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