Our youth deserve the opportunity to complete their high school and college education, free of early parenthood. We can make a difference by advocating for effective sex education.

It’s about time we make the well-being

of our young people more important than ideology and politics.

As a country, we benefit from investing in their future by investing

in teen pregnancy prevention. Our youth deserve the opportunity

to complete their high school and college education, free of early parenthood.

Their future children deserve the opportunity to grow up in financially

and emotionally stable homes. Our communities benefit from healthy,

productive, well-prepared young people.

We can make a difference by advocating

for effective sex education. The Title V funding for abstinence-only

programs is up for reauthorization by Congress. Since 1982, the US government

has allocated $3.6

billion to abstinence only-until-marriage

programs and has received a dismal return on its investment. And

not surprisingly – these programs have very little evidence of effectiveness. Mathematica Policy Research conducted a national evaluation of abstinence-only

programs and its findings show abstinence-only programs have no

beneficial impact on whether young people abstain from sex, delay sexual

activity, or reduce the number of sexual partners. This lack of

evidence demands we take a different approach to sexual health education.

The US has the highest teen birth rate of all industrialized nations

at 41.9 per 1,000 girls age 15-19. By comparison,

the next closest country is the United Kingdom at 26.7 per 1,000.

In my home state of Georgia, the state

government has received $22.4 million in federal funding for abstinence-only

programs over the last two years. Georgia’s spending on abstinence-only

programs is two times the amount of funds just approved by the state

legislature for funding teen centers, which provide critical services

including prevention education, counseling, and services for sexually

active youth.



Sex. Abortion. Parenthood. Power. The latest news, delivered straight to your inbox. SUBSCRIBE In the face of an aggressive abstinence-only industry, three students in Savannah, GA fight to resist five more years of government funding for these ineffective programs in their public schools. A teacher of abstinence education for twenty years admits in an on camera interview that comprehensive sex education would be a better way to combat some of the highest teen birth rates in the country.

Georgia ranks 10 th

nationally in teen birth

rates at 54.2 per 1,000 girls age 15-19. Georgia is 2nd

in repeat pregnancies, 6th in chlamydia, 5th in

gonorrhea, 3rd in syphilis and 9th in AIDS cases.

All told, abstinence-only education, as a program to safeguard young

people from high-risk behavior that leads to unintended outcomes, has

failed miserably. The persistent status of Georgia among the top

10 worst states for reproductive and sexual health outcomes in teens

illustrates the shortcomings of a policy that insists on teaching abstinence-only-until-marriage as the core sex education strategy.

In 1995, when Georgia had the highest

teen pregnancy rate in the US, I founded The Georgia Campaign for Adolescent

Pregnancy Prevention ( G-CAPP ). G-CAPP brings together community and

school leaders, health officials, and students to advocate for age appropriate,

evidence-based sex education curricula within local schools and federal

policy to fund comprehensive sex education programs.

Our young people are clamoring for

sex education. Time and time again, we hear from high school students

saying the sex education they receive is inadequate, it comes too late,

and it does not teach them the skills they need to act responsibly.

In Savannah, Georgia, where the teen

pregnancy rates are more than double the US rates, three teens are fighting

to replace the harmful abstinence-only-until marriage program "Choosing

the Best" in their school district with comprehensive sex education.

They are rightfully concerned that their school district has signed

on for five more years of the same ineffective curriculum.

G-CAPP is working with 30 youth from

around the state to get their voices heard. The Georgia Student Youth

Leadership Council (SYLC) is a group of dynamic young people who are

actively engaged in mobilizing other youth advocates to bring attention

to the need for better sex education. Our work is part of a collective

movement in the Southeast region, which has the highest rate of teen

pregnancy. In Mississippi, the House adopted HB 808 which would require comprehensive sex education

to be taught in grades K through 12. The bill died in the Senate,

but a major victory nonetheless. In North Carolina, HB 88 would require schools to offer both abstinence-only

and comprehensive sex education giving parents the ability to decide

which program their child would participate in. The bill is expected

to go before the House for a vote. In Texas, a recent report showing the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only

programs stated "our schools are failing Texas families by turning

out generations of sexually illiterate young people at a time of high

rates of teen pregnancy and STDs." In Florida, SIECUS released a

similar report .

The past administrations have wasted

opportunities to use our government resources to teach our young people

how to make good decisions about their health. It is time to we advocate

for policies and programs capable of addressing the root causes of adolescent

pregnancy and teach our young people the skills they need to live healthy,

productive lives. Our future depends on it.