Comprehensive Sex Education
The U.S. needs nationwide laws on comprehensive sex education because everyone deserves to make educated decisions on their health and safety.
Jo C
11/3/16
Dear Future President,
I hope you would agree that all people should have the right to make informed decisions on their health and safety. Unfortunately that is currently not the case in the United states. 4 million teens acquire an STD each year and 750,000 teen pregnancies occur each year. The United States have the highest rates of teen pregnancy than anywhere else in the world. All of this proves that the United States needs nationwide laws on comprehensive sex education.
Comprehensive by definition means complete understanding of a topic, knowing all aspects of it. Sex education in the United States has been called comprehensive but in reality there are many limits to what students know about sex and contraceptives by the time they are a senior in highschool. 35% of schools require abstinence as the only option for unmarried people and either prohibit the discussion of contraception altogether, or limit it to contraceptives ineffectiveness. Only 13 out of 50 states require instruction to be medically accurate, which is the most baffling and upsetting piece of evidence I found while researching.
With 6/10 women having sex before marriage and 7/10 men, abstinence only education is targeted at a fraction of people. STD’s and unwanted pregnancy can happen even if you are married so whether or not you are waiting until marriage, you are expected to figure things out on your own when you're ready to have sex. 3 million teens with STDs each year and 82% of teen pregnancies unintended but our laws on sex education still hasn't received major change since 1996 when congress gave $250 million to abstinence only education.
Some people may say that comprehensive sex education promotes sex before marriage but statistically speaking, people are having sex even when they are taught abstinence only. Research shows that abstinence only education actually deters contraceptive use among teens. Lack of education, or only negative information about contraceptives, isn't helping anyone or keeping them from having sex. All it’s doing is making people have sex without protection which is the opposite of the purpose of sex education.
In conclusion, abstinence only education isn't helping people and the only way to make sure all people receive the information they need is by making nationwide laws on sex education. Mr. or Mrs. president, you have the power to lessen stigma and improve the health of so many people. Please do not let any more people rely on the internet and sleepovers for sex education.
Sincerely Jo C.