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Op-ed: Importance of sexual education
While infant mortality rates have dropped over the last three decades, the U.S. is still only ranked 27th among the other western nations. The U.S has worse rates of adolescent pregnancy, birth, abortion, HIV, and STIs than any developed countries. Only 24 states require public schools to teach sex education and among these states, only 21 taught sexual health education and HIV education. In addition, amongst those states that teach sexual education, fewer teach all of the 16 topics that fall under it umbrella. Studies show that 75% of pregnancies among 15-19 years olds are unplanned, the average age at first sex in the united States is 18 and the pregnancy rate among 15-19 year olds would have been 73% without publicly funded family planning such as sex education. The CDC reported that a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years in 2015. However, reliable evidence highlights on how family planning and especially sex education can prevent pregnancy and ultimate reduce infant mortality in the U.S. Hence, the government and policy makers need to firmly nationalize sex education in every states and provide adequate funding for existing programs in hope to at least reduce teen pregnancy and infant mortality to all time minimum.
According to an expert from Guttmacher Institute, "school-based health center can play a key role in addressing unplanned teen pregnancy, and failing to provide contraceptive services on-site, for whatever reason, is self-defeating. We know contraception has been the main driver of the steep decline in the U.S. pregnancy rate among 15-19 year olds, which is why it's so important to give students easy access to the information and services they need".
It is very important to teach students and teens alike all the aspects of sexual relations. Young people deserve to lead healthy lives and an age-appropriate comprehensive sexual health education is a fundamental part of helping them take personal responsibility for their health and well-being.
Studies have shown that a comprehensive sex education is effective at assisting young people to make healthy decisions about sex and to adopt healthy sexual behaviors. The National Survey of Family Growth to determine the impact of sexual education on youth sexual risk-taking for young people ages 15-19, "indicates that teens who received comprehensive sex education were 50 percent less likely to experience pregnancy than those who received abstinence-only education". Sex education is primarily taught to prevent students from developing with STI's, and unwanted pregnancies, which could potentially lead to the death of the pregnant teen or infant.
Advocates for Youth is an organization that help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health. They believe it can best serve the field by boldly advocating for a more positive and realistic approach to adolescent sexual health. It is also important to note that U.S government spent billions of dollars on a program ( abstinence-only), which proved to be a fail attempt. An effective sexuality education is based on building an evidence and rights-based approach to healthy decision-making, yet this attempt will only reach its potential when all 50 states are involved. So, with the assistance of such organization as advocates for Youth, we could change policies related to sex education to be more comprehensive and available to our community. In order to reach the mission, the government and policy maker ought to hear our suggestion.
Federal, state, local, and U.S Foreign policies affect young people's ability to maximize their potential. Advocates for Youth also works to educate Members of Congress, State Legislators, the Administration, and local elected officials on a variety of issues that impact the sexual and reproductive health of young people in the United States. As such, I urge the government and other crucial parties to pass a law that supports the nationalization of sex education in all states. By doing, It is evident that we will see a tremendous decrease in teen pregnancy and the negative outcomes that accompanies it.