Comprehensive Sex Education

Submitted By cmr2321
Words: 984
Pages: 4

With the changing of presidents comes the changing of laws and regulations. While President George Bush was in office the only sex education programs that were funded by the government were abstinence only. With many critics and low success rates the Obama administration has changed that with the new health law. Comprehensive sex education is now being funded by the national government to prevent teen pregnancy. The argument around the nation now is does the comprehensive sex education program successfully educate and help the young minds of today? The results are showing that the technique used to reduce teen pregnancy should be comprehensive sex education because it is stressing the value of abstinence while preparing young people for when they become sexually active, providing medically accurate information on the health benefits and side effects of all contraceptives, and abstinence only programs are not sufficiently reducing teen pregnancy.

Abstinence only programs supporters disagree with the teachings of comprehensive sex education because, they believe that teaching children about how to prepare for when you do become sexually active is wrong. The supporters think that it is only putting it in their mind and that it increases they want to become sexually active. Supporters of abstinence only programs see that teaching the young adults about the contraceptives is also increasing the wants to be able to become sexually active, because they see a way out of becoming pregnant. The supporters of comprehensive sex education are trying to show that they are not in anyway increasing the sexual activity for giving the information and are showing that not all contraceptives have high working rates. With that said, abstinence only supporters are still on the fence with comprehensive sex education now being taught in many schools around the country.

Comprehensive sex education stresses the value of abstinence while also preparing young people for when they become sexually active. Studies done by Advocates for Youth have shown that the comprehensive sex education programs have had forty percent of teens delay sexual initiation (Advocates for Youth). Clearly the education that the teens are receiving is showing the importance of waiting to be sexually involved. Yet another great example is, in a 2007 study commissioned by Congress found that students in abstinence programs were just as likely as those in a comparison group to have sex over the next four to six years. Forty-nine percent in both groups remained abstinent (Rabin). In this study it shows that comprehensive sex education programs are giving information to students that they are using in their life. It also shows that abstinence only programs were not delivering anything that was stopping students from having sex, or teaching them about the contraceptives. Researchers have also studied the National Survey of Family Growth to determine the impact of sexuality education on youth sexual risk-taking for young people 15-19, and found that teens who received comprehensive sex education were fifty percent less likely to experience pregnancy than those who received abstinence only education (Advocates for Youth). Comprehensive sex education is obviously stressing the importance of not being pregnant as a teen and using contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. This proves that comprehensive sex education programs should be used for the education of students, because it is informing them in the of things they should know before they become sexually active.

In addition, comprehensive sex education provides medically accurate information about the health benefits and side effects of all contraceptives, including condoms as a means to prevent pregnancy and reduce the risk of contracting STIs, including HIV and AIDS. Of the twenty three effective comprehensive sex education programs, thirteen programs showed significant decline in teen pregnancy, HIV, or other STIs. In