The Reality of Sex

There seems to be a new fad in the teen pop-culture world – chastity rings. These rings, worn on the left-hand ring fingers of stars such as the Jonas Brothers and Jordin Sparks, symbolize a commitment of abstinence until marriage.

Despite of this rising abstinence trend, teen pregnancies and abortions are still prevalent in the United States. In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, the United State’s teen pregnancy rate is almost twice as high as those of England, Wales and Canada, and eight times as high as those of the Netherlands and Japan.

If abstinence is becoming a trend, and is the only 100 percent effective way to avoid pregnancy, why then are our numbers so high compared to other countries?

There is a devastating absence of “safe sex” curriculum throughout grades six through 12, and a devastating abundance of “abstinence only” curriculum.

In 2002 one third of teens had not received any formal education about contraception. This is because, as the Guttmacher Institute states, “86 percent of the public school districts that have a policy to teach sex education require that abstinence be promoted. Some 35 percent require abstinence to be taught as the only option for unmarried people.”

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, sex-ed curriculum in Europe is highly supported and extremely candid, according the Advocates for Youth website.

Europeans see sexual relations as normal and natural, with government supported long-term public education campaigns and sex education integrated across all school subjects and grade levels. Teens also have access to free to low-cost access to contraception through national health insurance.

In the United States, the pregnancy rate per 1,000 women ages 15-19 is 78.9 compared to France’s 20.2. If America’s teen pregnancy statistics equaled those of France’s, there would be about 550,000 fewer pregnancies per year. Clearly there needs to be a major governmental adjustment to the type of sex education in the United States.

It is a fact of life that teenagers will have sex. Teens are human beings with a desire to fulfill the five essential life processes as a living thing, reproduction being among those. With sexual intercourse imminent, all schools should require their sex-ed curriculum to be a comprehensive program teaching both contraceptive and abstinence options to reckon with the reality of teenagers’ sexual appetites.