Joseph Perkins

In the following viewpoint, Joseph Perkins contends that teenagers can and should be taught to postpone sexual activity until marriage. In fact, he maintains, more and more teens are practicing abstinence thanks to a new federal grant program that requires states to teach the benefits of abstinence in schools. Furthermore, Perkins asserts, since schools have begun teaching abstinence-only sex education in schools, the rates for teenage pregnancy, abortion, and birth have fallen. Teens will be less inclined to become sexually active before marriage if they are taught that abstinence until marriage is normal and expected behavior, he argues. Perkins is an editorial writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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