Sex Education & Parental Rights

[iNow]

A nice op-ed at the NYTimes a coupla days ago that is peripherally on topic:

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/opinion/06blow.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

In fact, a 2001 Unicef report said that the United States teenage birthrate was higher than any other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. tied Hungary for the most abortions. This was in spite of the fact that girls in the U.S. were not the most sexually active. Denmark held that title. But, its teenage birthrate was one-sixth of ours, and its teenage abortion rate was half of ours.

 

If there is a shame here, it's a national shame -- a failure of our puritanical society to accept and deal with the facts. Teenagers have sex. How often and how safely depends on how much knowledge and support they have. Crossing our fingers that they won't cross the line is not an intelligent strategy.

To wit, our ridiculous experiment in abstinence-only education seems to be winding down with a study finding that it didn't work. States are opting out of it. Parents don't like it either. According to a 2004 survey sponsored by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, 65 percent of parents of high school students said that federal money "should be used to fund more comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives."

 

We need to take some bold steps beyond the borders of our moralizing and discomfort and create a sex education infrastructure that actually acknowledges reality and protects our children from unwanted pregnancies, or worse.

 

 

h/t