Waiting game

Skinny, 13-year-old Rae'Vaughn Johnson gestures passionately in front of the cameras. "See, you can't prevent life from happenin'," he says, "but you can prevent teen pregnancy through abstinence.... If you love me, then I want you to know that I am worth the wait."

Rae'Vaughn won first place last week in a promotional video competition for Worth the Wait, a new teen pregnancy prevention campaign in Hampton Roads. Worth the Wait, a joint effort of the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and Teens with a Purpose, is one of the new faces of teen pregnancy prevention education. The government-sponsored program promotes abstinence but also includes "medically accurate and age-appropriate" information on how to have "safe" sex.

While Rae'Vaughn's video advocated abstinence, the competition accepted teen submissions that encouraged taking precautions in the hopes of preventing pregnancy, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

"When you look at the incidence of teen pregnancies, the increase in HIV and STDs, the reality is, regardless of what we want to think, kids are having sex," said Deirdre Love, Executive Director of Teens with a Purpose. "So, you have to meet people where they are. We always start out by saying, 'The only thing that you can actually choose that will keep you safe, to make sure you're not pregnant, to make sure you don't get infected, is abstinence.' So, that's what we want for you. But if that's not the choice that you're going to make, then we're going to give you the facts.'"

For every 1,000 Virginia women ages 15-19, 61 got pregnant in 2006, according to the most recent data from the Guttmacher Institute. Virginia is 30th highest in the nation for instances of teen pregnancy and rests below the national average of 71 pregnancies per 1,000 women. However, 34 percent of Virginia's teen pregnancies ended in abortion, two percentage points higher than the national average.

Statistics show that many unwed teen mothers who decide to keep their children instead of opting for abortion or adoption end up on welfare. Unintended pregnancies cost Virginia taxpayers approximately $286 million dollars a year, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute released in May.

Mixed messages?

Love said her organization surveyed hundreds of teens in the Hampton Roads area and found that around half were sexually active. Many of those who had remained abstinent, she said, were abstinent not on principles of purity but because they "didn't have an opportunity yet."

Tsion Michael coordinates Sanctity of Life Ministries' campus outreach program that addresses abstinence and unintended pregnancy at George Mason University. She says the number of students who have chosen abstinence on college campuses she's visited are few.

"I've met people on campus who have had abortions, or who have had an unintended STD, and situations like that, and they're embarrassed," she said. "A lot of people wish they waited."

"If they're not mentored in the right direction, it's hard for them to follow [sexual integrity]," Michael said. "It's so accepted to be sexually promiscuous that it's almost taught, that's your future, that's where you're going. When you set the bar so low for people, and you're not telling them why, what the benefit [of abstinence] is, I think they fall into the trap."

Love said the main part of TWP's mission is to target teens who are still abstinent with messages from abstinent "role models." The other part is to try to prevent those who choose to "play with fire" from getting pregnant or from contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The organization's website includes stories from both teens who have remained pure and those who have chosen to have extramarital sex.

To Love, a role model is "anyone who has taken a step in the right direction," either by choosing to remain pure or by choosing to use condoms and birth control.

"I'm a Christian and I'm like the only person that goes to church and they influence me," writes one TWP role model named Ashlynn. "So I think I'm going to make a promise to God that I'll keep my virginity until I get married. I know that God uses me as a lamp to shine on and I'm into pleasing him."

Another role model, Will, writes, "I would like to abstain, but just in case I don't, I'm planning to use a condom every time."

"Personally, I particularly do not like that [messages communicate 'safe' sex alongside abstinence], because it's a mixed message," Michael said. "That's why at the center and on campus, written in our commitment of caring for people... we give them God's prescribed order. And God's prescribed order for relationships is to wait until marriage, because if they wait, they'll have a better chance of obtaining their goals and their future."

Sanctity of Life Ministries emphasizes God's forgiveness for those who have had sexual relationships outside of marriage and focuses on a Biblical approach to help men and women heal and return to "sexual integrity."

Teens with a Purpose (TWP) is a private organization that is partnering with the VDH initiative. The organization began as a Catholic outreach but turned into a non-affiliated community organization in 2007. TWP describes itself as a "not for profit organization independent of any church yet still serving all faith communities and all of greater Hampton Roads."

"Often times, a lot of these programs-- and they mean well-- are expressing abstinence until, to this degree, but if you can't, well then use a condom, use this, use that, well they all have a fail rate," Michael said. "So what happens to that person you've advised, given that information to? You're still not offering them the best that God has for them, a plan for their life."

Love disagreed that the group was sending mixed messages and said their educational materials portrayed abstinence as the only truly safe option. "We have an abstinence message that is strong," she said. "We're promoting abstinence all the time, but we're making sure they get the facts all the time because that's what they need.... If they listen to the message and read the role model stories and see all of what comes with making that decision to be sexually active, it's more of a deterrent."

"To me personally, I think that God intended [sex] for a man and a woman specifically in a committed marriage relationship, that it is a spiritual gift from God, and it is intended to be treasured, and to be treated in a special way," Love said. "When you take that gift, and just give it to anyone, it's like balling up a gift that someone gave you and throwing it in the trash.... honestly it is part of what motivates me to do what I do, because I feel that way."

But, she added, "I try not to impose my beliefs on anyone."

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