Many teens today are more prone to catching a sexually transmitted disease by being sexually active. From my judgment I see in today’s generation, most teens think by simply doing it and losing their virginity, they’re accepted in society’s standard. Teens think it’s so cool or in other cases some may even think they finally reached their ‘manhood’, when in reality, it’s nothing like that. Having sexual intercourse isn’t and shouldn’t be based on popularity, it is something that should be taken seriously. There are a lot of risk when deciding to have intercourse with someone else, especially if you’re not being careful. Teens are not aware that there will be consequences such as getting pregnant and catching a sexually transmitted disease (STD). When it comes to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the United States offers woefully inadequate education says Familyfirstaid (2004). The most common mistake a teen can make is thinking that their body is immune to STD’s. Chlamydia is a silent but deadly STD if not treated well and is one of the common one that teens can get and not even know, according to Chlamydia Quick Cure.…
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the average teenager engages in sexual intercourse by the age of seventeen, but do not marry until the mid-twenties (citation). This means that young adults are at an increased risk for unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections for nearly ten years or longer. The numbers of students engaging in sexual activity of ages thirteen to twenty-four continues to grow each year, as does the number of unplanned pregnancies and HIV infections due to not being fully educated about the risks. Today, the duty of educating students and teenagers about sexual intercourse and the risks involved is left to the government and public school system. Abstinence education programs in public…
Teens did not know their own bodies. There were little factual resources that teenagers can depend. Few choices left for them, teenagers were guided along high risk actions. Abstinence was the approved option by parents, as it teaches teens to not be sexually active but not on protection or STDS. Another path is exploration on their own means. Exploration was dangerous, because teenagers were unaware of the consequences. Both options plunged teens’ health into a abyss. Then around 1980s, media started to reach towards the topic of sexual activity in teenagers. Many teen movies brushed against the topic about sexual activity and gave more positive responses than usual. Now, there is a rapid increase in sexual activity amongst teens. Due to this rise of sexually active teens, sexual health programs in high schools need to be updated to accommodate this change. High schools need to avoid only abstinence learning and implemented new programs for…
Each of us deserves medically accurate and thorough information in order to make informed decisions about our health. Teenagers who are exposed solely to abstinence-only sexual education programs are not experiencing this right to information. Abstinence-only sexual education programs preach abstaining from sex until marriage, often omitting conversations about other significant topics of sexual health – such as contraception, STIs, etc. Although practicing abstinence is the only sure way to avoid STIs and unwanted pregnancy, it is not realistic to expect all adolescents to remain abstinent until marriage. Research suggests that implementing comprehensive sexual education programs – those that include information on an array of sexual health…
Although the idea of using scaretactics and moral questioning to force teenagers into celibacy is an appealing one, it is hardly rational. Abstinence-only programs do not delay the initiation of sexual activity, a choice that many teenagers make regardless of what they’ve been taught (National Sexuality Research Webpage). In fact, regardless of the barrage of abstinence-only programs in the United States since the Clinton Administration, forty-seven percent of teenagers have sexual intercourse by the time the reach the age of seventeen. For this forty-seven percent, abstinence-only programs are violating their basic human right to make their own informed decision about sex, sexuality, and how to practice “it” safely, leaving the fifty percent of teenagers ages 12-17 who want more information about their sexual health (The Kaiser Family Foundation) in the dark.…
In 2005, nearly half of all high school students have had sexual intercourse. Plainly stating that abstinence programs do not work (USA Today). Abstinence programs were beneficial many years ago, but since they are ineffective in delaying teen pregnancy, then teen pregnancy rate has increased. Abstinence programs teach the “no sex until marriage” clause, but they don’t teach teens about birth control and the consequences of having sex at before they’ve matured. Although many studies argue that abstinence programs are educational and beneficial, other studies will show that they don’t delay teen sex, they don’t prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and are a waste of taxpayers’ money. The birth rate has increased by over 50% and increasing every day. Television and the Internet are filled with sex and teens are exposed to it on a daily basis.…
The presence of pre-marital sex among teenagers in today's generation cannot be ignored. Instead of trying to discount the number of teenagers that participate in pre-marital sex, society should go with a more realistic approach and educate them about birth control and therefore, there will be fewer necessary abortions. Educating today's youth about abortion and birth control will conjure ideas in them at a young age. With education comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes acceptance. Greater accessibility…
The increase of teenage pregnancy has placed a burden upon the argument for non-abstinent-only education. As indicated by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, every year an estimated 850,000 teenagers become pregnant. These statistics also conclude that more than one-third of girls will become pregnant before the age of twenty, and that 78 percent of these pregnancies are unintended. Comprehensive sex education helps delay sexual intercourse between teens by offering them the tools they need to avoid unintended pregnancy.(Berne 91) “Research done by Douglas Kirby for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy shows that programs that provide teenagers with comprehensive sex education that includes a discussion of…
The United States has the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy of any developed country. Each year, unprotected sex results in almost four million teenagers contracting an STD. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is also a serious health concern for young people. Of the 40,000 new HIV infections in the US every year, about 20,000 occur in people under the age of 25, unprotected sex being to blame. (1) The National Abortion Rights Advocacy League says, “By denying teens the full range of information regarding human sexuality, abstinence-only education fails to provide young people with the information they need to protect their health and well-being.” (2) Surveys done by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that “students who have sex education know more and feel better prepared to handle different situations and decisions than those who have not.” (3) If the abstinence-only approach continues, it is expected have serious consequences by denying young people access to the information they need to protect themselves. These…
In the United States, an estimated forty five percent of all female teenagers have premarital sex. As a result, about forty percent of all female adolescents become pregnant at least once before age twenty; and about four-fifths of these pregnancies are unintended. Twenty percent of these female adolescents bear a child, and about half of them are unmarried (Lawson and Rhode, 2). In a society that associates age appropriate sexual behavior and marital status with the welfare of the family and community, this is a very alarming statistic to many. Throughout the past several decades American society has developed very strong, and many times mythical opinions…
Concern for public health and safety have resulted in regulations of medical practices to standards of living enforced by social services and so on; sex education for today’s youth should be based on this same premise, to control the risks that are involved with the sexual activity of youth in the U.S. which are a potential threats to public health and safety. Among these concerns for youth who become sexually active outside of the context of marriage are the threat of STI’s and HIV and unwanted pregnancy. Looking at sex education from the perspective of public health and safety, it is clear that the most logical approach to effective sex education for today’s youth is the comprehensive approach which address several options for protecting oneself from the risks of sexual activity, as opposed to the abstinence only approach which has a biased “one solution for all” approach that does not address youth who are at a high risk for negative outcomes of sexual activity.…
A heated topic of debate among many parents and public high schools is sex. Further, what message would distributing condoms at high school say about sex? A majority of parents would agree that it sends a negative message out to impressionable teenagers, that being sexually active is socially acceptable and even expected. In Seventeen Magazine the article “Sexual Reality” by Anne Fearon it states that most school officials, and even doctors agree, that it does not send that message at all. It promotes safe sex. Two-thirds of all STD’s occur in people 25-years-old and younger. Some people say this startling statistic is caused by teaching any objectives in health classes that are not abstinence. They believe that making condoms available upon request and teaching different forms of contraception promote sexual promiscuity. I agree with Dr. Victor Strasburger, of the New Mexico School of Medicine, who claims “Until Americans get over their hysteria about giving teenagers access to birth control, we will continue to have the highest teen pregnancy rates in the western world. If we want to attack this problem, we must not be afraid to fight it. Each year, an estimated 3 million adolescents are infected with STDs, accounting for 25 percent of the estimated 12 million new STDs occurring annually in the United States. In 1997, one-half of all new HIV infections in the United States occurred in people under the age of 25. One in four new HIV infections in the U.S. occurs in people under the age of 22. Making condoms available in public high schools would help to lower both pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates among teenagers.…
This article focuses on effective programs and the benefits of such programs in helping to decrease the sexual behaviors of teens and improve their reproductive health in the process.…
Nationally, nearly one million young women under the age of 20 become pregnant each year. That means close to 2,800 teens get pregnant each day (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 117). A study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation shows that approximately four million teens get an STD every year. Experts estimate that as many as one in three sexually experience young people will have an STD by the age of 24 (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation). So is this because of lack of education about sex or are teenagers just that careless? It could be a mix of both, but lack of sexual education seems to play a big part in this problem. Sexual education should be increased in school because problems like teenage pregnancy and STDs are becoming more of an issue and having more knowledge could help teenagers learn the consequences and risks of irresponsible sexual behavior.…
Premarital sex is a huge problem in society today; the numbers are staggering. "Among Americans who have been married, a raging ninety- three percent of men, and eighty percent of women (between ages eighteen and fifty-four) have lost their virginity before their honeymoon" (Hjelle). Teens everywhere are not waiting until they are married to have sex. "Teenagers are saying, ‘sex is fun’ and ‘everybody is doing it’" (Dave). Teens are less developed, emotionally and physically before having sex, and they are not prepared for the serious problems that come along with their decision to have sex. There are always consequences when a teenager chooses to have sex. "Teenagers, according to some polls, view premarital sex as acceptable as long as ‘two people love each other’" (Hjelle). If at age sixteen a teenager tells a parent or someone older that they are in love, the parent will laugh and say that no teenager at sixteen has experienced true love. Love is something one experiences when one is mature and ready for a life-long commitment, not when one is involved in a two-year high school crush. "Premarital sex is based on selfishness, not on love" (Hjelle). If one has passionate feelings for someone, one may feel the need to have intercourse with that person. Teens need to open their eyes and see the harmful effects of premarital sex. "Premarital sex hurts you (sic), running the risk of getting diseases and it profoundly scars you emotionally, by cutting you off from God" (Evert). Some teenage girls are saying, "Oh I’ll be fine, I am on birth control and we used a condom; there are no worries." "No form of contraception can prevent a heart from being broken, and a soul from being lost"(Evert). While contraceptives may lessen the…