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The Consequences Of Abstinence-Only Sex Education

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“Don’t have sex because you will get pregnant and die.” Who here has seen Mean Girls? The infamous quote by the character Coach Carr is one many are familiar with. We laugh at it. It’s ridiculous. We giggle because there is no way this would pass for sex education outside of the silver screen, right? Actually, sometimes it does, and that comes with major consequences. Abstinence-only sex education has been taught in United States public schools for decades. This has been the state-preferred form of sexual education in many states, though proven to be ineffective in preventing or lowering the rates of teen pregnancies and STI transmission. Sex positive education, or education that teaches proper methods of protection and prevention, has been …show more content…
Other programs are secular and even briefly go over the use of contraception and protection while still emphasizing abstinence. Despite these differences, the goal of abstinence based sex education is the same: lower teen pregnancy and STI transmission rates by delaying first sex among teens. Ironically, statistics show that these forms of sex education correlate with higher rates of teen pregnancy- even going so far to show an upward trend with different levels of strictness in said education policies [3]. In a separate study, it was found that surveyed teens who had were taught abstinence-based sex education experienced an increase in teen pregnancy rates, STI transmission, a decrease in condom or contraceptive use, and little to no change in delay of first sex [1]. Overall, since abstinence education is ineffective in delaying first sex, it is no surprise that teen pregnancy and STI transmission rates would be so high considering these programs leave out important information on contraception and protection for teens that do have …show more content…
Overall, statistics in both the US and Europe show that abstinence-only education is wholly ineffective in attaining its goal of reducing the rate of teen pregnancy through delay and prevention of premarital sex. In fact, it has been shown to often have the opposite effect. Sex positive education, that emphasizes the use of protection and contraception, yields more positive results. Not only does it reduce the rate of STI transmission and pregnancy among teens, but it also delays and reduces teen sexual activity. It is a win/win situation and, as Europe has demonstrated, can be effectively implemented even among conservative and religious

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