by Zach Bigalke

Created on: June 07, 2007

As teenage pregnancy rates continue to statistically drop in the United States, it becomes more important than ever to realize the importance of comprehensive sex education in American public schools. The advent of sex education covering topics including sexually-transmitted diseases, contraceptive use and abstinence advocacy has led to the lowest rates of teen pregnancy in the United States since the statistic was first tracked in 1972. Because there is a greater understanding about how to protect oneself during intercourse, teenagers are less likely than their parents to encounter accidental pregnancies. However, three-quarters of one million teenage pregnancies occur in the United States each year, and the teenage pregnancy and birth rates in America are the highest among the developed nations of the world - four times above the European Union average.

A lot of successes have occurred in lowering teen pregnancy rates in the United States. But there is much more work to be done. President George W. Bush has repeatedly pushed for greater funding of abstinence-only sex education in American public schools. $170 million dollars were provided in 2005 for these programs. But a Congressional report headed by Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) in 2004 found that most of these abstinence-only programs mislead America's youth. Such blatant falsehoods as stating that condoms are ineffective one-third of the time, that abortions cause sterility in one out of every ten women, that having an elective abortion will cause a woman to commit suicide at a higher rate, and that HIV can be spread through sweat and tears. Such outright lies attempt to scare youth away from sexual intercourse.

Bush has pushed abstinence-only sex education throughout his two terms in office. Nearly one-billion dollars have been allocated to abstinence-only programs throughout Bush's presidency. And while abstinence advocacy is certainly an important part of a comprehensive sex education program, failing to give America's youth further information about how to protect themselves in case they do choose to engage in sexual intercourse (and CDC reports indicate that sixty-one percent of teenagers do have sex by the time they have graduated high school) endangers lives. And much like Bush's faith-based initiatives, abstinence-only sex education is an attempt to legislate morality ahead of public health interests.

We must maintain comprehensive sex education standards in our public schools. By doing so, we provide our future leaders with all the proper tools to make safe decisions in their lives. Without all the information - or worse yet, incorrect and blatantly-misleading information - our youth are doomed to fall further behind the rest of the developed world in this crucial stage of their lives.

SOURCES:

Guttmacher Institute - "U.S. Teen Pregnancy Statistics" - Sep. 2006
Planned Parenthood - "Sex Education in Schools" - 2006
Washington Post - "Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says" - 02 Dec. 2004
UNICEF - "A League Table of Teenage Births in Rich Nations" - July 2001

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