The Importance of Educating Teens on The Benefits of Safe Sex

Unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections are affecting teenagers and their families. In the United States, during the year 2010, “The pregnancy rate among teenagers was 57.4 pregnancies per 1,000 women; this means that about 6% of teens became pregnant in 2010” (U.S. Teen Pregnancy). Most of the school systems in the United States teach the abstinence-only approach during sex education classes for teenagers. This approach tells students that the only way to have safe sex is to not have sex at all, which is misleading information. Teenagers do not have a way to easily obtain free condoms without their parents being involved. So, when teens do have sex, it is likely unprotected. Unprotected sex leaves teens with a higher risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

Parents should educate their children on safe sex, whether or not their schools have the abstinence-only sex education policy. Schools in the United States should teach comprehensive sex education to teens, and provide condoms to their students to encourage them to have safe sex. The prevention of unwanted pregnancies in teens will lead to fewer abortions, which are difficult for all women, and especially teen girls, to deal with emotionally. To lower the rate of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, condoms should be provided to teens, free of charge, in a way that makes them easily accessible.

Most United States schools teach abstinence-only sex education, which teaches teens to refrain from sex until they are married, because they don’t want teens having sex. Many parents feel that educating their children on sex and how to have safe sex will make them more likely to have sex at a young age. Pro-life people believe that educating teens about safe sex will make them more likely to have sex at a young age and get pregnant, which means that abortion rates will go up. Parents and schools think that providing teens with condoms will lead to more pregnancy because condoms don’t always work.

While it is agreeable that teens should refrain from sex as long as possible on both sides of the argument, expecting teenagers to remain abstinent until marriage is unfair to them as humans who have natural tendencies. Teenagers who have been taught a comprehensive approach to sex do not have a higher sex rate, as many parents may fear. In fact, a study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, dealing with abstinence-only programs, found no evidence that these programs increase rates of sexual abstinence (Malone et al.).

Both people who are pro-life, and those who are pro-choice, do not like abortion, but providing teens with condoms is not going to raise abortion rates. While it is true that condoms have been shown to occasionally fail, using them correctly greatly reduces the risk of pregnancy. Only 2% of women experience an unintended pregnancy in the first year of using condoms (Condom technology).

Teaching teens about safe sex is a great way to combat the effects of unprotected sex, like sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies. Although they should be encouraged to remain abstinent while they are adolescents, teens should also be taught about safe sex in a comprehensive way. Schools should teach comprehensive sex education to teens so they know the risks of sex, but also how to engage in it safely with condom usage. Access to condoms can determine how a teen’s life will be affected by sex in the long-run. Providing comprehensive sex education and condoms to teens will lower unwanted pregnancies and abortions, which emotionally impact teens and their families.

Parents, schools, older siblings, and even doctors should provide teens with free condoms and knowledge of safe sex, which will help prevent teen pregnancy. As it is, some young men ages fifteen to twenty-two don't fully understand contraception, and are unaware of measures to avoid unplanned pregnancy (A number of young men). Also, “Teen motherhood is a very complex social issue that can be viewed from a multiplex of directions” (Misra et al.). If schools would implement accurate and comprehensive sex education programs instead of the abstinence-only method, teen pregnancy rates would decrease, which would lead to fewer abortions.

If teens are provided with free condoms, they will have a way to engage in safe sex, which protects them from sexually transmitted infections which can be harmful or fatal, and unwanted pregnancy. Providing teens with condoms also protects their parents from the heartache of having a child who becomes a teen mom or dad. According to statistics, access to condoms reduces all of the problems associated with having unprotected sex.

Even with all of the facts and evidence to prove the effectiveness of condoms, schools and parents are still not properly teaching teens about safe sex and condom usage. Until appropriate strategies are used to teach teens about safe sex, and condoms are made readily available, the problem is only going to get worse. The potential problems teenagers face from unprotected sex are dangerous to their health and should be avoided at all costs. Condoms should be readily available for teens to use in order to help prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.