Sex Education: Getting Real

By Editorial Board  |  The Philadelphia Inquirer
April 04, 2009

Bombarded at every turn with sexually explicit messages, American teenagers need comprehensive sex education. As they might put it, it's time to keep it real.

For the past eight years, this country has done a disservice to young people by spending $1 billion to push an abstinence-only message that disregards the importance of other viable methods to prevent pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

The Bush administration believed that encouraging teens to wait until marriage to have sex was enough to reduce teen pregnancies and STDs. But statistics available now show that approach hasn't worked. Young adults need more information to avoid risky behavior that could have lasting consequences.

The United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the developed world. Experts estimate that as many as 750,000 teen girls will get pregnant this year.

Even more troubling is that at least one in four teenage girls has at least one of four commonly sexually transmitted disease. The statistics are even worse for black girls ages 14 to 19, with nearly 50 percent having an STD at some time.

The abstinence-only message has proven costly and ineffective. It offers only one narrow viewpoint to a population that needs all the viable options when it comes to making decisions about sex.

A 2007 report on abstinence-only programs found that they had no measurable impact in delaying teens from having sex for the first time. Fortunately, lawmakers are ready to repeal this leftover from the Bush administration with a bill authorizing federal funding for comprehensive sex education programs.

Sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.), the bill would cut millions of dollars in funding currently available to the states for abstinence-only programs. They could still get funding by offering more comprehensive sex education.

Under the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act, youngsters would get age-appropriate and medically accurate sex education. Instead of less information, they would get more. They would still learn about abstinence, which really is the only foolproof way to avoid unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Since so many teenagers are making up their minds to have sex, they need to hear about being in a monogamous relationship with a disease-free partner. But they also need to know about condoms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year in the United States, costing the nation's health-care system $15.3 billion annually.

Researchers estimate that 3.2 million teenage girls are among those infected with an STD. Young people should be given the comprehensive information they need to make informed decisions about sex. Their very lives are at stake.