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From Students to Mothers: Are Schools Condoning Teen Pregnancy with Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education?
Abstinence-Only education programs; scaring teens out of sex since 1998. To many, the

phrase “abstinence-only education” doesn’t ring any bells as it was taught in schools under the

name “health and sexual education.” Many have no clue what is the taught in abstinence-only

programs and how this affects youth. These programs are being taught in schools all over the

country with a hope that the increased rate of teen pregnancies will lower but, studies have

shown that abstinence-only programs are ineffective and are positively correlated with the

increased rate of teen pregnancies in the United States and these numbers will only continue to

grow until we educate ourselves and our youth.

Jessica Chester was a seventeen-year-old who attended high school in Garland, Texas.

Jessica was at the top of her class, a 4.5 GPA and a full-tuition scholarship to the University of

Texas. Before her senior year of high school, Chester found out she was pregnant and her whole

life changed. “In Texas every year, about 35,000 teens and young women get pregnant before

they turn 20.” (Silverman, 2017) Chester is not the only one in her family to become a teen

parent. There was her mother and her grandmother before that, but Chester is attempting to break

the mold so that her boys wont end up as teen parents as well. Gwen Daverth, CEO of the Texas

Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, says that “Teens everywhere are having sex, with about

half of high school students saying they've had sexual intercourse and that the high numbers in

Texas reflect policy, not promiscuity.” An incredibly difficult task is to try and prevent the

inevitable and contrary to popular belief, the inevitable in this case is not teenage pregnancy, but

sex. It is not hard to imagine that teens all over are having sex, many of them unprotected and

uneducated. What is hard to imagine though is that we are not educating and connecting our

youth with contraceptive services and ways to have safe sex. We’re not promoting healthy sex if
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From Students to Mothers: Are Schools Condoning Teen Pregnancy with Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education?
we use sexual education courses in schools to scare youth out of having sex, which in the end

only makes them more vulnerable to unplanned pregnancies and STD’s, right?

According to the website, Advocates for youth, Abstinence only programs or

“Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs, sometimes called Sexual Risk Avoidance

Programs, teach abstinence as the only morally correct option of sexual expression for teenagers.

They usually censor information about contraception and condoms for the prevention of sexually

transmitted diseases (STDs) and unintended pregnancy.” (Alford 2007) Abstinence-only

programs are designed to keep youth in the dark in hopes that if they squash their curiosity and

cover it up with infected genitalia and “horror” stories about teen parenting, that youth will be

less likely to have sexual relations but it only makes them more curious to find out for

themselves if what is being said is really true. Majority of youth find out the hard way that there

is some truth to what was taught in school, such as the spreading of disease and unplanned

pregnancies but it doesn’t have to reach that point anymore. There is so much that we can offer

youth in terms of knowledge about sex and different forms of contraception, but refuse to out of

fear that if we educate them, they will use the tools that we have given them but when you stop

and think about it, isn’t that the point?

Teaching abstinence-only sexual education in schools, in its simplest form, is taking

away the rights of our youth. An article titled “The Truth About Abstinence-Only Programs”

from the “Advocates for Youth” website says that, Accurate, balanced sex education– including

information about contraception and condoms – is a basic human right of youth. Such education

helps young people to reduce their risk of potentially negative outcomes, such as unwanted

pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).” (Alford 2007) We take away their right
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From Students to Mothers: Are Schools Condoning Teen Pregnancy with Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education?
to knowledge and their right to protection because if we keep them in the dark much longer, they

won’t be able to see and all they’ll be able to do is make poor, uneducated, decisions and it will

be on us.

One of the claims against comprehensive sexual education, which teaches about

abstinence as the best method for avoiding STDs and unintended pregnancy as well as condoms

and contraception, is parents. The article, “The Truth About Abstinence-Only Programs,” goes

through the claims and the facts of abstinence-only programs and helps bring truth to light on

this controversial issue. One of the claims is that parents want abstinence-only education to be

taught in schools. The fact is that “most Americans want far more than abstinence-only in

schools. Only 15 percent of American adults believe that schools should teach abstinence from

sexual intercourse and should not provide information on how to obtain and use condoms and

other contraception.” Most parents want a broader sexual education curriculum that teaches more

than just about what diseases are but how they are contracted, how to get tested, how to put a

condom on, and the different types of birth control available.

Another claim is that abstinence-only programs provide accurate, unbiased information

about reproductive health, but the fact is that much of the what is commonly taught in

abstinence-only programs is distorted information. Youth are misinformed on the effectiveness

of contraceptives, abortion, STD’s and more. As stated before, Abstinence-only programs have

one goal and that is to prevent teens from engaging in any sexual activities before marriage.

These programs are used as scared tactics to scare youth out of sex and in this case, their slogan

should be “ignorance is bliss.” According to a report by the Government Reform Committee

staff, reviewed the 13 most commonly used curricula and concluded that two of the curricula
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From Students to Mothers: Are Schools Condoning Teen Pregnancy with Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education?
were accurate but that 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contained unproven

assertions, subjective conclusions, or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender

traits, and when life begins.” (Alford 2007) These uneducated youths become uneducated parents

and they don’t know how to educate their children and neither do schools, so it becomes a

vicious cycle of disease and teen pregnancy.

This brings me to my last point. Comprehensive sexual education is no longer an option,

but a necessity. “The appropriate type of sex education that should be taught in U.S. public

schools continues to be a major topic of debate, which is motivated by the high teen pregnancy

and birth rates in the U.S.” (Stanger-Hall & Hall 2011) Compared to other developed countries,

from 2002-2005, such as the Netherlands, the teen pregnancy rate was 11.8%, versus that of the

United States which has an astounding teen pregnancy rate of 72.2%.​ ​While states in the U.S.

with comprehensive sexual education programs have lower teen pregnancy rates, these rates are

much higher than those seen in Europe. This is largely due to the fact that in the United States,

state laws do not require sexual education to be taught in all schools, but that provide

“guidelines” on the basics of sex. The difference between the rate of teen pregnancy in the

United States and that of Europe is not because of the amount of sexual activity but the content

of their sexual education programs and the accessibility of contraceptives and support. “Sex

education in Europe is based on the WHO definition of sexuality as a lifelong process, aiming to

create self-determined and responsible attitudes and behavior with regard to sexuality,

contraception, relationships and life strategies and planning.” (Stanger-Hall & Hall 2011)

This controversial debate begs the question that if abstinence-only education should

result in teenagers being abstinent, that means that the teenage pregnancy and birth rates should
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From Students to Mothers: Are Schools Condoning Teen Pregnancy with Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education?
be lower in the states that have an added emphasis on abstinence-only, right? Wrong. Data has

proven that abstinence-only education does not delay sexual initiation or reduces teen pregnancy

rates. The fact is that abstinence-only education programs are ineffective at delaying the

initiation of sexual activity and in reducing teen pregnancy rates. “A long-awaited,

federally-funded evaluation of four carefully selected abstinence-only education programs,

published in April 2007, showed that youth enrolled in the programs were no more likely than

those not in the programs to delay sexual initiation, to have fewer sexual partners, or to abstain

entirely from sex.” (Stanger-Hall & Hall 2011)

So where do we go from here? We take baby steps to try and lower the increasing teen

pregnancy rate. One of the first steps would be to have all states require that comprehensive

sexual education be taught as a necessity and not an option in all schools. Sexual education

teachers would receive proper training and informed knowledge in order to teach youth on the

importance of having safe sex. There is only so much that the youth can do alone, so imagine the

endless possibilities they would have with our support. “As parents, educators or policy makers it

should be our goals that (1) teens can make educated reproductive and sexual health decisions,

that (2) teen pregnancy and STD rates are reduced to the rates of other developed nations, and

that (3) these trends are maintained through the teenage years into adulthood.” (Stanger-Hall &

Hall 2011) Abstinence-only programs may be condoning irresponsible behavior in terms of

sexual activity by keeping our youth uneducated and in the dark. Some youth never receive

sexual education at home from parents and what is put on social media can be easily distorted so

where else can they turn but school? As educators, policy makers, and formerly confused adults,

it is our responsibility to protect the future generations to come by giving them all the tools to
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From Students to Mothers: Are Schools Condoning Teen Pregnancy with Abstinence-Only
Sexual Education?
succeed whether that be accessibility to contraception or integrated sexual education in the

classrooms We must help guide them the right way because if not us, then who? If not now, then

when?