In response to your article on ("Abstinence vs. Safe Sex" SN 1/18), one has to wonder whether those championing "abstinence-only" sex education bother to look at the statistics of what they are advocating.

First of all, their mantra is that abstaining from sex until marriage is the only way to avoid STDs and unwanted pregnancy. Well, statistics show that a decent percentage of all abortions are performed on married women, so marriage licenses clearly fail to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and I would venture to estimate that clinics diagnose married people with STDs every day of the week.

So then, what is better advice than either marriage licenses or condoms? Masturbation. The rate of STD transmission and unwanted pregnancy by masturbation is far lower than either marital or condom sex, but it will be a cold day in hell before the "abstinence-only" advocates say anything about masturbation because they aren't motivated by statistics or reality, but purely by religious dogma.

Eric Hoheisel
Haslett resident