Need for Sex Education in Schools Increases, as Teen Pregnancies Rise for First Time in Over a Decade
Congress recently ended its federal funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, and not a minute too soon. A new report by the Guttmacher Institute demonstrates that after a decade and a half of decline, teen pregnancy, abortion and birth rates in the United States have begun to rise. Between 2005 and 2006, teen pregnancy rates increased by 3% nationwide, and teen abortion rates by 1%. Teen births rose steadily between 2005 and 2006, and again between 2006 and 2007.
The Guttmacher report highlights the link between the recent emphasis on abstinence-only education and the rise in teen pregnancy. According to senior public policy associate Heather Boonstra, the increase in teen pregnancy “coincides with an increase in rigid abstinence-only-until-marriage programs…A strong body of research shows that these programs do not work.” Even when the teen pregnancy rate was at its lowest, in the early 2000s, the United States still had a higher rate of teen pregnancy than other industrialized nations. Continuing to deny teens’ access to comprehensive sexuality education will not prevent a further rise in teen pregnancies. Richard S. Guido, chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’s Committee on Adolescent Health Care, has decried the usefulness of abstinence-only, saying that “the idea that most teens will wait to have sex indefinitely is rigid and impractical.” Meanwhile, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, agrees that it is time for a different approach: “This new study makes it crystal clear that abstinence-only sex education for teenagers does not work.”
The Guttmacher report demonstrates the need for comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education in all schools in the United States. Congress has recently taken an important first step and established $114 million for a teen pregnancy prevention program that will provide much-needed federal funds to help support comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention programs and sexuality education programs across the country.
The National Institute for Reproductive Health, in partnership with advocates across the nation, is committed to ensuring that young people have access to comprehensive sexuality education programs in their schools and communities.
By Sasha Albert, Sexuality Education Project Intern