There Are Other Ways Than Abstinence Until Marriage for Teens.

Everything today, from soda-pop commercials to magazines at the grocery store, oozes sexuality. It’s an impossible influence to avoid, and young people need to be taught by both parents and teachers. There are very few Americans that remain abstinent until marriage and most go on to sexual activity intercourse as adolescents. Abstinence from sexual intercourse is an important strategy for preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancy among adolescents and young adult. According to A Review of U.S. Policies and Programs, many Abstinence and Abstinence-Only Education programs are being taught in many school systems from high school to college (74-75).   However, controversy arises when report finds abstinence-only programs demonstrate little evidence of why adolescents should delay initiation of sexual intercourse. They provide missing information to adolescents and hold information needed for adolescents to make informed choices. These programs also neglect real health needs for contraceptive methods and STI testing among sexually experienced adolescent, putting them at higher risk for unintended pregnancy and STIs, including HIV.
Abstinence is a very healthy choice for teenagers, but it is not the only message to teen. Sex education for teenagers needs to give teenagers all the facts, all the medically accurate information they need to protect themselves and that is called Comprehensive Sex Education. “Abstinence only until marriage vs. comprehensive sex education may be simply the latest pairing of antagonistic ideologies in the ‘culture wars’ that have racked post-Vietnam America. Yet the lives of many young people worldwide may hinge on the outcome,” says Steve Sternberg of USA Today in his article, “Sex Education Stirs Controversy (2002).”   The comprehensive sex education approach fully supports abstinence, but recognizes that adolescents are going to have sex. The Center for Disease Control and...