Put another way, abstinence advocates hope that saying "abstinence is the only method which is 100% effective in preventing pregnancy and STIs" will be misinterpreted by the public and politicians to mean the same thing as "abstinence-only education is the only method which is 100% effective in preventing pregnancy and STIs." This is akin to pretending that the fact that never using silverware is the only method which is 100% effective in preventing one from stabbing oneself with a fork is a reasonable justification for never using silverware, as if there were no way to still use a fork such that the risk of stabbing oneself is almost negligible. Ultimately, as Santelli et al. (2006, p. 76) note, this kind of argumentation "is misleading and potentially harmful because it con-ates theoretical effectiveness with the actual practice of abstinence," leaving those in abstinence-only programs woefully unprepared to deal with the reality...
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