One could raise a chicken-and-egg argument here. Does sex cause depression, or does depression cause sex? And don't some kids in unhappy homes use sex to escape depression? But as the Heritage analysis points out, the differences in happiness between sexually active and non-sexually active kids are too large and too widespread for the depression to have caused the sex in most cases. They could've lashed out in any number of ways. Also, a majority of teens who had become sexually active admitted they'd started too soon and expressed regret.
Advocates of "safe sex" – those with the harebrained idea of giving away condoms at school – must face the fact that there is no condom for the brain or heart. For them, the only negative consequences of teen sex they seem to care about are the physical dangers (and even then, with the high failure rate of condoms kids are never fully protected from either disease or pregnancy). What about the emotional and psychological dangers?
Heritage Senior analyst Robert Rector explains that the consequences of teen-sex are felt for a lifetime: "Sexual activity by teens has both short-term and long-term negative psychological effects. It disputes their ability to develop loving, intimate and committed relationships and thereby creates great unhappiness in later life." Why don't groups like Planned Parenthood, etc., care about that?
The only way to truly protect kids from damaging their complete health is to teach them to wait. You never can tell what will catch a kid's attention. Some may not fear pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. For them, maybe these findings will turn their heads – and they'll learn that, contrary to the commercials and the TV shows and everything else that screams at them to have sex now, to get involved now, sex doesn't make you happy and in fact can make you fatally sad. If so, my Heritage Foundation colleagues will have rendered them an invaluable – perhaps life-saving – service.
Rebecca Hagelin is a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a research and educational think-tank whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense. She is also the former vice president of communications for WorldNetDaily and her 60-second radio commentaries can be heard on the Salem Communications Network.