Teen Pregnancies

The numbers speak volumes

In the United States of America, there a number of states with troubling teen pregnancy statistics. While sex health information becomes more readily available to the public on the internet, who’s talking to the youth about it?

In this graph the red states are those which have the higher rates of teen pregnancy in the USA.

These southern states’ teen rates are watched attentively as they are in a critical state that residents want to see improved.  There are several theories of the possible factors that have led to this increase in teen pregnancies, however one major contributing factor that should not be overlooked is sexual education.

Many schools have the right to choose the type sexual education in the schools, and it has long been debated as to how early and how much information should be given to young people to inform them and not encourage them towards sex. This is a fine line that gets blurred over different religious beliefs and personal moral standards.  In a comprehensive sex education objective, information about contraceptives mingle with tips on abstinence.  Abstinence-based sex education, however, underlines the potential dangers of sexual activity omitting information about contraceptives.

The two programs seem to contrast, so can they coincide?

In West Virginia abstinence-based comprehensive sex education including contraception has been primarily stressed from the West Virginia State Board of Education since June, 2008.

So far, this objective has not seen very positive results. With a rank of 40, West Virginia is among the 10 worst states in the U.S. for teen births. This high ranking means that West Virginia’s teen pregnancy has been steadily since 2005; and that’s something to talk about.

In this state, at George Washington High School in Charleston, they brought in speaker Pam Stenzel, Founder of Enlighten Communications Inc., a not for profit organization for a school assembly to talk about sex education.  Stenzel and her organization provide structured abstinence education for the masses and during this assembly she shared her views on abstinence and contraceptives.

GW high school student Katlyn Campbell made a complaint against her school principal who agrees with Stenzel and her advice on abstinence-only sex education.  Campbell found Stenzel’s advice shaming to promiscuous girls and her advice about contraceptives misleading.

Stenzel was quoted saying several controversial messages to give Campbell this idea and Campbell believes that many students felt uncomfortable.

Stenzel proposes that teens can just stop having sex and ignore their sexual urges.  The most damning part about Stenzel’s message is that she casted doubt on the use of contraceptives.  This stance underlines the self-combative nature of a having a combined abstinence-based comprehensive sex education objective as one approach eventually contradicts the other.  Moreover, when that contradiction actually negates the use of contraceptive methods, this puts a huge strain on the youth so that they become even more at risk.

While Stenzel tried to keep religion out of her speech, the message of abstinence until marriage stems from

religious teachings. Advocating no sex before marriage in a country that doesn’t accept gay marriage makes Stenzel’s solution to lower teen pregnancy is exclusive, unrealistic, and insulting.

Stenzel’s religious stance really puts her education and background in sexual education into question.  Doesmother with an STI can pass her infection onto her child, even a married partner could be a carrier.  There are several other factors that determine sex safety that need to be addressed with information about contraceptives.

Stenzel believe that there are no possibilities of sexually transmitted diseases once married?  As a

So, if the sex education specialist refuses to acknowledge and address all of the issues, where is the safe place that these at risk curious teens can go to get all of the information?  The answer to this question is the key to improving accessibility to sex education and making a strong effort to end teenage pregnancy.