Many school systems continue to promote abstinence-only education, despite the fact that it has been proved just how useless it can be. Students are not informed, and sometimes they are even given blatant factual inaccuracies in order to scare them. And this can have disastrous consequences on their minds and bodies.
Our culture glorifies sex, but we don’t teach our youth how to handle it
There is a sad irony in our society. While we try to shield kids away from sexual education, and we are ashamed to talk to them, the entire culture promotes sexual content aggressively. Therefore, abstinence-only programs are more than useless these days. Even worse, these programs are eating federal resources, and it has been revealed that 80% of the programs “distort information about the effectiveness of contraceptives, misrepresent the risks of abortion, blur religion and science, treat stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact, and contain basic scientific errors.”
This can be dangerous for young people
Misinformation is even more dangerous than we would’ve thought, and these programs have led to numerous teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Young people are being lied to and they do not have the right information. Therefore, they are not able to protect themselves, and they put their health in serious danger.
Numerous activists are trying to repair this situation by promoting comprehensive sex education. It is crucial to teach our students how to use contraceptives and other safety methods. Abstinence might be the only way that is 100% safe since it won’t allow any pregnancies or infections, but it is not okay to teach our students that is the only option they have. It has already been proved that this approach is useless, so try to find something better.
