Condoms in Schools Lead to ... More Pregnancy?
Remember those so-called "experts" who assured us that condoms would cut rates of fertility and STDs? Well, they now face a conundrum.
Those who've pushed condoms like candy in public schools have given us any number of rationales. They told us that young people "are going to do it anyway," so more condoms would equal fewer pregnancies. They also said that more condoms would lead to fewer STDs, or sexually transmitted diseases. And as they proceeded to pass out condoms by the handful to our school-age children, they told us that religion and morality should be left out of it, in the name of public health and, of course, science.
New research, however, suggests these prophets of prophylactics were wrong — desperately wrong — and that it's time for a fresh look at the issue.
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A recently released study by University of Notre Dame researchers Kasey S. Buckles and Daniel M. Hungerman has found that access to condoms in schools actually increases teen pregnancies by about 10 percent — that's right, increases it! Buckles and Hungerman selected 22 school districts in 12 states that started such programs back in the 1990s, including New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The study analyzed teen-fertility data from nearly 400 high-population counties over a span of 19 years.
