Abstinence-Only Education Versus Sex Education

“Let’s talk about sex, baby…” The popular lyrics from a Salt-N-Pepa song seizes the topic of sex in our culture perfectly. The debate of abstinence-only education versus sex education has been a recent issue between the government and parents. Even though sex education informs teens how to protect themselves against sex, abstinence should be taught because abstinence is one hundred percent effective, keeps teens emotionally inbound, and does not cost anything. The United States has higher rate of teen pregnancies than most other Industrialized Western Countries. In 2002, seventy-five out of 1,000 teens became pregnant in the U.S. (Kirby 143-177). Compare that to the second highest Western Country with a rate of twenty-three teen pregnancies

What students do not learn in those classes is that the cost is a barrier when buying condoms. The state of Louisiana conducted a research test on the amount of free condoms taken and the amount of discounted condoms taken. Louisiana found that when the replaced free condoms with discounted condoms, the percentage of condoms taken or purchased dropped from seventy seven percent to seventy percent (Cohen, Scribner, and Bedimo 567-568). Costumers purchased seven percent less condoms from when they were free to when they were discounted. The purchase price of condoms is an obstacle to using them. Teaching students how to use the condom is not useful if they are not buying the condoms. Price is a barrier when buying

But, forty two percent of students in a comprehensive sex program will become sexually active eventually (Chavez 22) and after “…two decades of extensive education promoting the use of condoms, sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates have continued to rise” (Ray 4). About four million STD cases occur among teens in the past year (Kirby 143-177). This means they are not using protection or contraceptives are not working. Most teens have a “poor understanding of contraception…” (Yee and Simon 397) even though they learn how to use them. “…One main barrier to consistent contraception use was lack of contraceptive knowledge” (Yee and Simon 397). Students learning how to protect themselves during sex and against STD’s, does not mean that they will retain that