The data and research evidence below might helpfully inform anyone wishing to fill in the government’s Call for Evidence concerning sex education mentioned in the article 'Tell the Governement'.
You will find that it tends to support the wisdom of the Bible. In the survey, each would need an explanation: one that hasn’t been copied and pasted from anywhere, including here.
Suggestions about how
The survey needs to be filled in by an individual. Duplicated text will be spotted, and these responses will be grouped together as ‘one response’. Don’t write a list of what shouldn’t be taught – be positive. Promote the benefits personally of biblical marriage and the joys of long-lasting marriage for the couple, their children and society.
The government is very keen to hear children’s responses. As the survey doesn’t ask about specific topics, it is suitable for even primary-age children to fill in, with adult help, and could provide an ideal opportunity to discuss the benefits of biblical marriage.
Look at the research
The following websites provide facts which need to be taken into account.
• Marriage makes children safer. Some evidence can be found at the following link: www.e-n.org.uk/2011/04/features/broken-homes-battered-children/
• Sex only in marriage would protect children. If the widespread expectation was that children won’t be having sex, or be ‘in a relationship’, then the problem of deciding where the line should be drawn to establish whether or not a child is being exploited, or just in a consensual relationship, would disappear: www.e-n.org.uk/2017/09/features/society-in-the-dock/
• Monogamous biblical marriage eliminates sexually transmitted infections (STIs): www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/06/cases-of-syphilis-hit-highest-level-in-england-since-1949
• STIs increase where use of non-barrier contraceptives take place (current widespread UK practice) which reduce the abortion rate, but do expose people to infections, some of which are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics: www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/antibiotics-sexual-infections/en/ www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/617026/STI_NCSP_infographic_poster_2017.pdf
• Abstinence is positively promoted in the USA by their own Health Care System as a way to prevent contracting an STI. Young women’s bodies are biologically more susceptible to STIs: www.cdc.gov/std/products/infographics.htm
• Cuts in provision of contraception reduces teenage pregnancy over time: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0167629617304551
• If a person has not had sex and there is little access to contraception, the ‘moral or psychological barrier’ of having sex with a partner is less likely to be crossed. In the long term, reduced funding and reduced access to contraception will reduce the incident of conception. In the short term there will be a slight increase in conception rates as those who have already crossed the barrier of sex will continue to have sex. With less access to contraception, they are more likely to get pregnant, hence the temporary spike in conception rates: http://public.econ.duke.edu/~psarcidi/teensex.pdf www.familyeducationtrust.org.uk www.lovewise.org.uk
