Center for Policy Alternatives
CPA - Header Photo

Health and Sexuality Education

Millions of sexually active teenagers receive inadequate sexuality education.
Over 46 percent of all high school students have engaged in sexual intercourse, but 37 percent of sexually active students did not use a condom when they last had sexual intercourse.1 More than one-third of young women become pregnant at least once before age 20.2 Despite the clear need for information to help teens abstain from sex and protect themselves if they become sexually active, many local school boards and curriculum committees across the country are moving in the opposite direction—toward abstinence-only education.
Young Americans—particularly minority youth—are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS.
Teenagers continue to be at high risk for acquiring and transmitting STDs. Two-thirds of all STDs occur in people 25 years of age or younger, and one in four new STD cases occur in adolescents.3 Young women of color are particularly at risk. Latina, African American, Asian American, and Native American women have substantially higher rates of chlamydia than white women. And although African American women and Latinas together represent about one-fourth of the female population, they account for over three-fourths of all reported female cases of AIDS.4
Comprehensive sexuality education is critical to the health and well-being of America’s teenagers.
Comprehensive sexuality education addresses the full range of issues that arise during adolescence, including sexual development, reproductive health, interpersonal relationships, body image, decision-making, and gender roles. In a society where teens are constantly exposed to sexual overtones and innuendo—in the media, in popular culture, and in everyday life—comprehensive and medically-accurate sexuality education can help children and teenagers process what they see and hear about sex, deal effectively with societal and peer pressure, and make responsible decisions regarding their own sexuality. In fact, former Surgeon General David Satcher declared that comprehensive sex education in schools is “vital,” noting that “the gap between what we know and what we do is lethal.”5
Comprehensive sexuality education successfully delays sexual activity among students and reduces teen pregnancy rates.
A statewide comprehensive sexuality education program run by a Maine community group contributed to a 35 percent decline in the teen pregnancy rate since the program began. Because of its success, the Maine legislature expanded the program in 2002 to cover every school in the state. A 2001 report noted that many comprehensive sexuality education programs successfully delayed the initiation and decreased the frequency of sexual activity among students.6
Since 1996, Congress has committed more than a half-billion dollars to fund abstinence-only education programs.
These programs teach abstinence from sexual activity as the only acceptable form of behavior outside of marriage for people of any age. Programs that receive these federal funds are prohibited from discussing contraceptives—unless they portray them as ineffective.
There is no credible evidence that abstinence-only education is effective.
Despite years of evaluation of abstinence-only education, there is no reliable evidence that it actually delays the initiation of teen sex or reduces its frequency.  In fact, recent research shows that abstinence-only strategies may deter contraceptive use among sexually active teenagers, increasing their risk of unintended pregnancy and STDs.7 A 2002 Human Rights Watch report found that some abstinence-only education programs falsely claimed that condoms are ineffective in preventing HIV transmission, and that “condoms don’t work.”8
American parents overwhelmingly favor comprehensive sexuality education programs.
Nearly nine in ten American parents believe that sexuality education programs should cover all aspects of sexuality, including contraception, safe sex, and abstinence.9 Major medical, public health, and research institutions support comprehensive sexuality education, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Nurses Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Public Health Association.
Only 22 states require schools to provide sexuality education.
Education on HIV/AIDS and other STDs is mandated in 38 states and the District of Columbia, but only 22 states and the District of Columbia require a broader sexuality education curriculum (AK, DE, FL, GA, HI, IL, IA, KS, KY, ME, MD, MN, NV, NJ, NC, RI, SC, TN, UT, VT, WV, WY).

This policy summary relies in large part on information from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Endnotes
  1. Centers for Disease Control, “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2003,” 2004.
  2. Deborah Weiss, “Pregnancy & Childbearing Among U.S. Teens,” Planned Parenthood, January 2006.
  3. American Social Health Association, “STD Statistics,” 2001.
  4. AIDS Action, “What Works in HIV Prevention for Women of Color,” 2001.
  5. Jim Kirksey, “Official: Sex Ed Gap Hurts All of Us; Ex-Surgeon General Calls it a Health Risk,” The Denver Post, September 12, 2002.
  6. Douglas Kirby, “Emerging Answers: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy,” National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2001.
  7. Martha Kempner, “Toward a Sexually Healthy America: Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs that Try to Keep Our Youth ‘Scared Chaste,’” Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, 2001.
  8. Human Rights Watch, “Ignorance Only: HIV/AIDS, Human Rights and Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Programs in the United States,” 2002.
  9. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, “Sex Education in America: A View from Inside the Nation’s Classrooms,” 2000.
Updates