Talking about abstinence?

Between AP Biology and the last home football game of her senior year my daughter and her friends dash off to the hospital to visit their teen friend who is about to give birth. Texas teens rank number one in the nation in having babies. Although the U.S. teen birth rate has dropped by one-third, Texas has only dropped by 19%. Other states have seen a decrease in teen births by 47%. What is the difference? Is it the fact that Texas teaches an abstinence only curriculum? In Texas public schools sex education does not have to be offered and if it is offered the focus must be on abstinence. There are many great programs out there discussing abstinence as the preferred choice for unmarried young people. The state spends about $5 million a year just on education grants to contractors to come in to the schools to teach abstinence programs. While I am extremely pleased that my daughter and many other teens have chosen abstinence, what about the girls and boys that are not making that choice? During my six years on the health advisory committee for the school district, I learned that no one wants to talk about teens having sex. Is this why we are number one in the nation? We assume that teaching teens about contraception encourages them to have sex. That is not what the research shows. Many teens plan on not having sex, however we are talking about real life and sometimes, real life fails. Do teens need to be educated about how to avoid risky sexual behavior and how to use contraceptives correctly? Do they need to develop skills in communication and sexual decision-making so that sex does not just "happen?" Do they need information on disease prevention? Texas’ policy is to deny contraceptives without parental consent wherever possible. Low-income teens are protected by the federal government and can get birth control without parents consent under Medicaid, however many of them do not know this.
Yes we can help reduce the teen pregnancy rate by educating young people about the consequences of premarital sex and promoting abstinence. Could we reduce the teen pregnancy rate further by educating teens on contraception? As I talked with teens many say by the last couple of years of high school they have tuned out the abstinence talks because that is all they hear. In the time it took you to read this, a teen in Texas gave birth. Talk to your teens about sex, yes it is a difficult topic but one that needs to be discussed.

- Becky Law, RN
Childbirth Educator