Teen birth figures highlight need for better sex education

A December report that the nation’s teen birthrate rose for the first time in 15 years lends support to the argument that abstinence-only sex education programs are failing many of America’s young people.

For 2006, Western North Carolina’s teen pregnancy rate among girls 15-19 stayed about the same as it’s been since 2003, about 59.6 per 1,000 women, according to an October report.

That should be good news in light of the rising national rates, but there’s more to the story.

Until 2006, the national birthrate had been dropping since its peak in 1991. Between 2005 and 2006, it grew by 3 percent, from 40.5 per 1,000 in 2005 to 42 per 1,000 in 2006. In 1991, the peak for teen births, there were nearly 62 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19.

In other words, in Western North Carolina, we’ve held steady for three years just shy of the national peak.

Rep. Fisher’s bill

It’s a shame a bill sponsored by Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe, that would have required school districts to provide comprehensive sex education classes for students in seventh grade and above failed to make it out of the education committee during the 2007 General Assembly session.

It would have relieved school systems of the obligation to hold public hearings before installing a comprehensive sex education curriculum and of asking parents to consent or refuse to allow their children to participate, though it would have allowed parents to take their children out of sex education classes.

Fisher’s bill can’t be brought up during the short session this year because it failed to pass either the House or the Senate, but Fisher said earlier this week that it’s still being talked about in the Democratic Women’s Caucus and that she intends to introduce it again in 2009.

If the statistical trend continues in the wrong direction, as many experts fear it will, the bill may have a better chance in a couple of years.

More diseases

In addition to an increase in the number of teen births, some key sexually transmitted disease rates are on the rise including syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia.

It’s part of the same phenomenon, said Dr. Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health.

The December report offers a state-by-state breakdown of birthrates. Many of those with the highest birth- rates teach abstinence instead of comprehensive sex education, according to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

As Fisher pointed out when her bill was being considered, despite an abstinence-until-marriage curriculum, research shows that the majority of young people do not wait until they are married to have sex. Sixty-three percent of high school seniors in the state report having had sex, she said.

A study ordered by Congress and released in April found that students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not. They also reported having similar numbers of sexual partners and first having sex at about the same age as other students — about 14.9 years.

In other words, abstinence-only programs don’t work if the goal is to prevent teen pregnancy and disease transmission by preventing teen sex. As a result, teens are having sex without accurate, factual information about the potential consequences of their behavior.

Better to inform

Withholding age-appropriate information about sex from curious young people trying to make sense of their emotions and developing bodies leaves them vulnerable to making uninformed decisions that can alter their lives forever, sometimes tragically.

Many abstinence-only proponents believe it should be up to parents to provide guidance about sex to their teen-agers. While that’s true, for whatever reason, many parents don’t. That leaves many vulnerable young people whose futures are on the line.

If they make bad choices without fully understanding the consequences, not only they, but the larger community, will suffer. Teen-age mothers often don’t complete high school and babies born to them are more likely to be neglected and abused, often perpetuating or setting in motion a cycle of poverty and dependence on services paid for by taxpayers.

Fisher’s bill could help empower young people with age-appropriate information to which they have a right. Here’s hoping it becomes law the next time it’s introduced.

Meanwhile, if you have a teen and you haven’t talked with him or her about sexually transmitted diseases, birth control methods and the financial, emotional and other obligations that accompany parenthood, now, as the New Year begins, would be a good time to have that discussion. If you din’t know where to start, ask a librarian for books and Internet resources that offer guidance.

It may be one of the most important conversations you ever have with your child.