The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reported last week that the distribution of free condoms in high schools yielded the opposite of the desired effect — rather than lowering teen pregnancies, the access to free contraceptives increased fertility by about 10 percent and contributed to a rise in sexually transmitted diseases.
Proponents of free contraceptives in high schools scrambled to explain away the study’s findings.
Sarah Kliff explained on Vox that some “social conservatives” may believe that “free condoms encouraged teenagers to engage in riskier behavior than they would have otherwise — with the condoms available, they could possibly decide to have sex in situations where they otherwise wouldn’t.”
The problem with this reasoning is that the study covered thousands of schools and data nationwide, and the facts are glaring. Maybe teen fertility has increased because teens are having more sex now that condoms are free.
The NBER study reports that schools have been handing out free condoms but not providing the proper “counseling,” and it is unclear what form of counseling is meant.
Naomi Schaefer Riley predicted in an article for the New York Post that liberals will argue that condoms aren’t the problem anymore – the lack of “counseling” is the problem, despite the fact that there is “scant evidence” that sex education “affects teen pregnancy or venereal disease rates,” according to Johnathan Zimmer’s Too Hot to Handle: A Global History of Sex Education.
The NBER study also stated that condoms are the most ineffective contraceptives, and that oral contraceptives are far more effective. However, handing out pills would be quite an overstep of a high school’s boundaries. The research continues to disprove liberal logic – one teen pregnancy at a time.
