Is Abstinence-Based Education a Way of Stunting Teenage STDs?

As teenagers’ trail-blaze into the realms of sex and relationships, it is a natural assumption that sexually-active youngsters will be given lessons about sexually-transmitted diseases.

In Texas however, the county health officials are starting to squeeze on the educational boards as a significant rise in teenage STDs is beginning to be made public. As one of the states that bears the highest teen-pregnancy rates, there is scrutinisation over sex education in schools. Whilst there are numerous concerns about pregnancies and STDs, many are questioning as to whether or not there should be an abstinence-based education in order to reduce such alarming rates.

Whilst this is met with uncertainty, the Dallas County Health Director Zachary Thompson, a representative for HIV and AIDs awareness, suggests that the boards must look to reality. “We’re okay with abstinence programs but there needs to be a comprehensive sex education discussion around HIV/AIDS prevention with the alarming rates we’re seeing in the 13-18 age group,” he said.

These groups were surveyed by Dallas County Health and Human Services for a 2012 report. In 2010, 35 from that age group contracted HIV, which accounted for 3.9-percent of total cases. The numbers for other STDs were worse. A quarter of the roughly 5,000 gonorrhoea cases and 16,000 Chlamydia cases in Dallas County in 2010 were diagnosed in teenagers.

Although the discouragement to have sex in general upholds a presence in Texan education, teenagers are bombed by information, imagery and media that tells them that it’s all right to have sex. What occurs is a vacuum, where those teaching the children are undervalued by information that tells young people that it’s a positive act.

Thomson believes this to be problematic, with debates being tossed back and forth about whether to introduce an abstinence-based education or an abstinence-only one. Whilst it is assured that neither are the same, ‘the talk’ about the birds and the bees has suddenly become very complex in one of the largest states in America.