Just Say No.

Most readers were pleased with our Dec. 9 Special Report on teen virginity. Many lauded abstinence as a welcome response to what one called "a backlash against a pushy amoral society." But others called abstinence "unrealistic" and stressed the importance of comprehensive sex education.

The New Sexual Revolution

As the mother of teenagers I found your articles on abstinence most enlightening if not a bit too optimistic for today's kids (Special Report, Dec. 9, 2002). If the current administration really wants to instill family values among teenagers they would do better by putting more pressure on the media. How can kids expect to remain virgins if they are constantly bombarded by overtly explicit images everywhere they turn, whether it be on television or in movies, magazines or billboards? The message in the United States is that sex sells, whether we like it or not. And until we get our priorities in order, we won't be able to change anything.

Vicky Mamieh

Mexico City, Mexico

Thank you, President Bush! It's about time a world leader spoke out on the benefits of abstinence and the physical and emotional perils of sex outside of marriage. Your article "The Battle Over Abstinence" says "there's so far little evidence to show abstinence works," but you don't need to be a scientist to figure out that someone who doesn't have sex is not likely to catch a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or get pregnant. If you meant that there's little evidence that teaching abstinence works, history has shown that it has worked very successfully throughout the last couple of thousand years. STDs and "unwanted" pregnancies were largely avoided until the sexual revolution. There is also evidence that the past 40 years of sex education in America has failed. Liberals who don't care to hear about other alternatives like abstinence are petrified of "turning back the clock" on the rights they have gained to "no fault" divorces, abortion and homosexuality--behaviors they tell our children are acceptable. Is the idea that "a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity" really such an appalling and dreadful one?

Todd Proctor