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Home , Sex education

In Brief

Facts on Sex In the United States

SEX AND AMONG TEENS levels among their Canadian, English, received instruction about contraception • By their 18th birthday, six in 10 French and Swedish peers, they are likely before the first time they had sex. teenage women and more than five in 10 to have shorter and more sporadic sexual • One-quarter of sexually experienced teenage men have had . relationships and are less likely to use teens had not received instruction about contraceptives. • Between 1995 and 2002, the number before first sex. of teens aged 15–17 who had ever SEX EDUCATION: TEENS’ PERSPECTIVES engaged in sexual intercourse declined SEX EDUCATION: • By 2002, one-third of teens had not TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES 10%. received any formal instruction about • Sex education teachers were more likely contraception. • Of the approximately 750,000 teen to focus on abstinence and less likely to that occur each year, 82% • More than one in five adolescents provide students with information on are unintended. More than one-quarter (21% of females and 24% of males) , how to obtain contracep - end in . received abstinence education without tive services, and • The pregnancy rate among U.S. women receiving instruction about birth control abortion in 1999 than they were in 1988. in 2002, compared with 8–9% in 1995. aged 15–19 has declined steadily—from • In 1999, one in four sex education 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women in • In 2002, only 62% of sexually experi - teachers taught abstinence as the only 1990 to 75 per 1,000 women in 2002. enced female teens had received instruc - way to prevent pregnancy and STIs— • Approximately 14% of the decline in tion about contraception before they first a huge increase from 1988, when the teen pregnancy between 1995 and 2002 had sex, compared with 72% in 1995. fraction was just one in 50. was due to teens’ delaying sex or having • Only one out of three sexually experi - • The majority of teachers believe that sex less often, while 86% was due to an enced black males and fewer than half of topics such as birth control methods and increase in sexually experienced teens’ sexually experienced black females had how to obtain them, the correct way to contraceptive use.

• Despite the decline, the United States Shifts in Formal Sex Education continues to have one of the highest The proportion of teens receiving any information about birth control has declined, while teen pregnancy rates in the developed the proportion receiving information only about abstinence has increased. world—almost twice as high as those of England, Wales and Canada, and % of teens aged 15–19 eight times as high as those of the 100 and . 80

• Every year, roughly nine million new 60 sexually transmitted infections (STIs) occur among teens and young adults in 40 the United States. Compared with rates 20 among teens in Canada and Western Europe, rates of and chlamydia 0 among U.S. teens are extremely high. Girls Boys Girls Boys Birth control information Only abstinence information • Though teens in the United States have levels of sexual activity similar to 1995 2002 use a , sexual orienta - STIs, but their laws tend to be compared with one in five of research shows that tion, and factual and ethical very general. Policies specify - such districts in the Northeast. abstinence-only strategies information about abortion ing the content of sex educa - may deter contraceptive use should also be taught by the GOVERNMENT SUPPORT tion are typically set at the OF ABSTINENCE-ONLY among sexually active teens, end of the 12th grade. These local level. EDUCATION increasing their risk of unin - topics are currently being • There are three federal tended pregnancy and STIs. • More than two out of three taught less often and later than programs dedicated to funding public districts have a • Evidence shows that compre - teachers think they should be. restrictive abstinence-only policy to teach sex education. hensive sex education programs education: Section 510 of the • More than nine in 10 The remaining one-third of that provide information about Social Security Act, the teachers believe that students districts leave policy decisions both abstinence and contracep - Adolescent Family Life Act’s should be taught about up to individual or tion can help delay the onset teen pregnancy prevention contraception, but one in four teachers. of sexual activity among teens, are prohibited from doing so. component and Community- reduce their number of sexual • Eighty-six percent of the Based Abstinence Education partners and increase contra - • One in five teachers believe public school districts that (CBAE). The total funding for ceptive use when they become that restrictions on sex have a policy to teach sex these programs is $176 million sexually active. These findings education are preventing them education require that absti - for FY 2006. were underscored in “Call to from meeting their students’ nence be promoted. Some 35% • Federal law establishes a Action to Promote Sexual needs. require abstinence to be stringent eight-point definition and Responsible Sexual taught as the only option for • Eighty-two percent of adults of “abstinence-only education” Behavior,” issued by former unmarried people and either support comprehensive sex that requires programs to teach Surgeon General David Satcher prohibit the discussion of education that teaches students that sexual activity outside in June 2001. contraception altogether or about both abstinence and of is wrong and limit discussion to its ineffec - other methods of preventing harmful—for people of any tiveness. The other 51% have a pregnancy and STIs. age. The law also prohibits policy to teach abstinence as programs from advocating • Only one-third of adults the preferred option for teens contraceptive use or discussing surveyed support abstinence- and permit discussion of contraceptive methods except only education, while half contraception as an effective to emphasize their failure oppose the abstinence-only means of preventing pregnancy rates. approach. and STIs. • Federal guidelines now define SEX • More than half of the sexual activity to include any • Currently, 35 states mandate districts in the South with a behavior between two people either sex education or educa - policy to teach sex education that may be sexually stimulat - tion about HIV/AIDS and other have an abstinence-only policy, ing, which could be interpreted as including even kissing or Teaching Gap hand-holding. There is a large gap between what teachers believe should be covered and what they actually teach on some topics in sex education. • Federal restrictions have been Advancing sexual and expanded to target adolescents worldwide % of sex education teachers through research, policy and young adults between the analysis and public education 100 ages of 12 and 29. New York 80 • There is currently no federal 120 Wall Street program dedicated to support - New York, NY 10005 Tel: 212.248.1111 60 ing comprehensive sex educa - [email protected] tion that teaches young people 40 about both abstinence and Washington DC contraception. 1301 Connecticut Ave, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036 20 • Despite years of evaluation in Tel: 202.296.4012, [email protected] 0 this area, there is no evidence to date that abstinence-only www.guttmacher.org HIV STDs Abstinence Birth Facts on Condom Sexual Additional copies may be purchased control abortion use orientation education delays teen sexual activity. Moreover, recent for $0.25 each. Believe should be covered Actually teach Volume discounts are available. December/2006