During her 2006 trip to West Africa, First Lady Laura Bush said:

"I'm always a little bit irritated when I hear the criticism of abstinence, because abstinence is absolutely, 100 percent effective in eradicating a sexually transmitted disease. In a part of the world where one in three people have a sexually transmitted, deadly disease, you have to talk about abstinence—you really have to. In many countries where girls feel obligated to comply with the wishes of men, girls need to know that abstinence is a choice."