Lakita Garth

In an effort to reduce the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States, political, religious, and educational leaders have implemented sex education programs that focus on abstinence. Traditional sex education programs describe various methods of birth control and ways to prevent sexually transmitted infections. Abstinence-only education programs state that abstinence until marriage is the standard for human sexual behavior and warn students of the psychological and physical harms that may accompany premarital sex. In the following viewpoint, Lakita Garth makes this argument and contends that abstinence teaches students the fundamental life lessons of “self-control, self-discipline, and delay of self- gratification.” Garth is a noted speaker on various issues such as race relations, politics, feminism, AIDS, abortion, and is one of the country’s leading abstinence advocates.

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