The Dangers of Abstinence-Only Sex Education

Paper Summary:

This paper demonstrates the fallacies of abstinence-only education. It cites research that shows graduates of these programs are less likely to use proper protection when they do engage in sexual activity, making them more susceptible to pregnancy and STDs. It also compares the U.S. to other countries that use comprehensive sex education programs, showing that their pregnancy/STD rates among teens are a fraction of those in the U.S.

From the Paper:

"A sexually active teenage girl who has sex without contraception has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year, according to the Kaiser Institute. An equally jarring fact is that during a single act of intercourse with an infected male partner, a female teen has a 3 out of 10 chance of becoming infected with genital herpes, a 1 out of 2 chance of becoming infected with gonorrhea, and a 1 out of 100 chance of becoming infected with the HIV virus (Michael). Nearly half of sexually active women reported having sex with two or more partners in the past year, while an additional twenty percent admitted to having unprotected sex with more than one partner. While rates of sexual activity do not differ between most countries, the rate of unprotected sexual intercourse in the U.S. is more than twice that of any other industrialized nation."

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• Comparison Essay # 118971 : "Abstinence-Only Sex Education"

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