Parents and Teens: Get Informed and Get Involved!

Education and factual information about prevention and reproductive choices is key to reducing the number of cases of contracted sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion. Teens need to learn the information and skills necessary to protect themselves if and when they become sexually active.

Though parents should have the primary responsibility for teaching their children about the risks and responsibilities of sexual activity, many parents do not provide a thorough  education at home.  Many lack the proper information to teach these lessons; others find it uncomfortable discussing sexual matters.  In any case, teens are often less receptive when communicating with their parents about sex.

As a result of these shortcomings in sexuality education and family communication, teenagers are often grossly misinformed or inadequately prepared to deal with issues involving sex and may continue to remain so throughout adulthood.

Comprehensive sexuality education provides complete, medically accurate, culturally appropriate, and age-appropriate information about reproductive health, including abstinence, pregnancy prevention, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS prevention. School districts can, and often do, provide comprehensive sexuality education as a part of the health education curriculum.

Where Teens Currently Stand In Numbers

Between 1995 and 2002, the number of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 that reported having engaged in sexual intercourse declined by 10 percent.  The pregnancy rate declined from 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women in 1990 to 75 pregnancies per 1,000 women in 2002.

Despite these trends, of the approximately 750,000 teen pregnancies that occur each year, 82 percent are unintended, and over 25 percent end in abortion.  Additionally, roughly nine million new STIs (sexually transmitted infections) occur annually among teens and young adults in the United States.  The rate at which these infections occur is considered extremely high when compared with Canada and Western European countries. (1)

Comprehensive Sexuality Education vs. Abstinence Only Programs

Research has repeatedly shown that the most effective way to ensure that young people have the necessary skills to prevent unintended pregnancy, resist peer pressure, correctly and consistently use contraceptives, and prevent and treat STD/HIV infections is to provide them with comprehensive sexuality education.

Sex education programs that promote abstinence-only or fear-based curricula have not proven to be effective and can be dangerous and counterproductive, in five ways:

1).  relying solely on scare tactics by emphasizing the negative consequences of sexual activity in an effort to frighten students into abstinence;

2).  failing to provide objective information regarding contraception and STD/HIV prevention methods or provides only information about failure rates;

3).  providing inaccurate or unsubstantiated medical information;

4).  omitting information regarding sexual orientation or providing judgmental information; and

5).  employing gender stereotypes and/or inappropriate religious emphases.

For the last two decades, the federal government has funded abstinence-until-marriage programs that do not provide teens with comprehensive and accurate information.

Teaching young people about abstinence is a critical part of a well-rounded and effective sexuality education program. But teaching abstinence by itself is clearly not sufficient. Only when young people have complete, accurate, and reliable information can they make informed and appropriate decisions about sex and reproductive health.

In New Hampshire, teaching a sexuality education curriculum is not mandated by the State. Individual school boards, principals, or health education teachers may decide which, if any, curricula to present. In addition, the State does not track which programs or resources individual schools choose to present.

What is NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire Working On?

Our goal is to raise general awareness about how vital a strong comprehensive sexuality education program is to the development of responsible young adults throughout the state.  We encourage as many individuals to take the initiative to research the quality of the curriculum local students in their area are being taught, and to generate dialogue in their communities about this important issue.  NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire is ready and willing to assist communities throughout the state in supporting and fighting for thoroughly comprehensive sexuality education in all public schools.  New Hampshire students deserve to have statewide leadership supporting their health, safety, and futures.

It is important that residents, parents, and teens are informed and knowledgeable about the type of sexuality curriculum your community is currently providing. NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire has assembled resources available to anyone interested in learning more about taking action, including questions to ask, curriculum guidelines, advice on writing a Letter to the Editor, and more.  You can take measures to ensure that it provides students with the honest, medically accurate, age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education they deserve by clicking here

For more information contact us at 228-1224 or info@prochoicenh.org.

(1) Alan Guttmacher Institute, ‘In Brief: Facts on Sex Education In the United States’, January 2007