Cost Of Sex Education Essay

Many sexually active teens are not fully educated on the dangers of unprotected sex. Instead, they are told that abstinence is the only option for teens. This method of sexual education leads to more teen pregnancy over comprehensive sexual education. When comparing the abstinence only versus comprehensive sex education, comprehensive sex education was associated with a 50% lower teen pregnancy risk (“National”). In Illinois alone, 22,660 teenage women between the ages of fifteen and nineteen were pregnant in the year 2011. In that same year, there were 390 pregnant teens under the age of fifteen. In the United States total, there were 562,320 teen pregnancies in 2011 (“U.S.”). According to a survey of 4,000 seventh- to 12th-grade teachers by the Guttmacher Institute, 23 percent of sex education in the public schools the United States teach abstinence only. Although abstinence is important, it is clear that the coverage of contraceptive topics is also crucial in helping our youth prevent unplanned pregnancy and STDs. …show more content…
At this age most teens have not started having sex yet, but typically will start in the next five years. Although abstinence is ideal for teens, it is not realistic. With how open media is about sex and nudity, it is hard to keep that from youth. Therefore, these sexual education courses have a large impact on the teens. I suggest Germantown Hills Junior High switch to a comprehensive sexual education course. The current sex education course does nothing more than try to scare kids out of having sex by showing them pictures of diseases. This is no way to be teaching teens about their bodies and how intercourse works. Germantown does not explain how to use contraception or how sex affects people physically and emotionally. I believe it is important for young people to get information that could help them protect their health physically and