The Silver Ring Thing

[FightingFat]

What do you guys know about this initiative? I remember hearing about it on the T.V. here. Is it true that it was a disaster with an 88% failure rate?

I ask because it’s being cited to me as an argument against abstinence with reference to the condom issue; i.e. “abstinence wont work because people don’t use condoms, but they even more don’t abstain”…sort of thing…

 

[1edyson]

Not sure about the silver ring thing but here is an interesting read about abstinence vs condom use in the Philippines.

Low Rate Of AIDS Virus In Philippines Is a Puzzle

 

[BillP]

What do you guys know about this initiative? I remember hearing about it on the T.V. here. Is it true that it was a disaster with an 88% failure rate?

I ask because it’s being cited to me as an argument against abstinence with reference to the condom issue; i.e. “abstinence wont work because people don’t use condoms, but they even more don’t abstain”…sort of thing…

Yes. Although the failure rate was only 82%.

By 2001, Rosenbaum found, 82 percent of those who had taken a pledge had retracted their promises, and there was no significant difference in the proportion of students in both groups who had engaged in any type of sexual activity, including giving or receiving oral sex, vaginal intercourse, the age at which they first had sex, or their number of sexual partners.

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122801588.html

The person who mentioned that people who take abstinence pledges are less likely to use condoms is also correct.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a “virginity pledge,” but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

(my Bold)

Which may or may not be a bad thing depending on how you feel about condom usage…