Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S. PLoS ONE, 6(10).
Principle Findings
In this journal article, the author’s main goal is to analyze the effectiveness of abstinence-only education versus comprehensive sex education. The US ranks number one among developed nations in teen pregnancy and the rate of sexually transmitted diseases despite the US having similar cultural and socioeconomic patterns in teen pregnancy rates as other countries. The difference is believed to be because of sex education. In Europe, access to sex health information and services for everyone including teenagers is easier than it is in the US. Abstinence-only …show more content…
In 2005, more than 7,600 people died each day from AIDS- related causes and about 38.6 million people worldwide are infected with HIV. HIV and AIDS are a global epidemic. Strategies must be put in place in order to lower the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Abstinence-only programs are a possible solution. These programs teach the social, health and psychological benefits of abstaining from sex. They teach that sex outside of marriage is both harmful and morally wrong. However, abstinence-only programs that aim to prevent HIV differ from the standard abstinence only programs. Abstinence-only programs, which focus on preventing HIV, are more likely to discuss the risks of oral sex, anal sex and other means of contracting the disease while the standard abstinence- only programs would only discuss abstinence from vaginal sex as a way to prevent pregnancy.
Critical Thinking
After thoroughly reading this article, it became clear that this study was heteronormative meaning that the authors seemed to indicate that they focused on abstinence-only education in regards to heterosexual adolescents. While this is not a fallacy, it does bring the effectiveness of the study into question. The authors state that their research was to measure how effective abstinence-only education was on HIV prevention. A large number of those in the HIV community are homosexuals so it seems …show more content…
While the rate of adolescent pregnancy has decreased, teen pregnancy, HIV, and STIs are still major public health issues in the United States (Chin et al, 2012).. Abstinence only education focuses on teaching adolescents to refrain from having sex until they are married while comprehensive sex education discusses the benefits of abstinence, birth control, condom use and other ways to stay protected. While abstinence-only education is the most popular, the positive effects of such sex education have shown to be minimal at best (Chin et al,