Going Too Far? Sex, Sin and Social Policy

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the Religious Right on American social policy as it relates to family, sexuality and reproductive health. The article focuses on the current debates and practices of abstinence-until-marriage programs vs. comprehensive sex education programs - and the ways in which they reflect and affect cultural attitudes about sexuality, teenagers, parents and rights. The manuscript is based on comparative fieldwork, including participant observations in schools and interviews in the United States and Denmark with teenagers, teachers and sexuality educators. We question whether it is sex education that goes too far in promoting early and promiscuous sex or the Religious Right in attempting to censor vital information and services from young people. What if I want to have sex outside of marriage? I guess you'll just have to be prepared to die. - No Second Chance The United States leads the industrialized world in teen pregnancy, abortion and sexually- transmitted disease rates - and in legislating and funding abstinence-until-marriage programs as social policy. It also stands out as the only industrialized country still embroiled in a debate about whether creationism should be taught in public schools. These issues help reveal the dynamic interplay between religion and politics in the United States. In examining the role and power of conservative religious groups in shaping domestic and foreign policy, this paper focuses on the issues of reproductive and sexual health, education and family - and the impact they have on young people. In order to illuminate the cultural and political-economic factors that inform debates and social policy concerning sexuality and gender in the United States, this study presents a comparative analysis of Danish and U.S. approaches to family planning, reproductive health and sexuality education. This analysis of young people, their teachers, sex educators and sex ed materials in the United States and Denmark represents more than a year of ethnographic fieldwork and participant-observation in Roskilde, Denmark and central Pennsylvania. i The