During the 1960s, prompted John Birch Society, ultraconservative organization, schools to remove sex education programs in classrooms, the charge that the classes had "slipped", "immoral" and "dirty communist conspiracy" to poison the minds of American children. At the end of 1970, only the District of Columbia and three states-Kentucky, Maryland and New Jersey requires that sex education be taught in public schools. The decrease in sex education programs in the 1970s was accompanied by a steady increase in the rate of adolescent sexuality and out of wedlock births. As the AIDS epidemic began to expand its reach in U.S. schools in the 1980s, parents and teachers decided that they needed to teach their children about the realities of sex and disease.
In December 1997, nineteen states and the District of Columbia require schools to teach sex education, 34 states and the District of Columbia require the teaching of HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
In mid 1990, the teenage sex and lawlessness has become the central concern for conservatives, who sought to reform the welfare system. They accused the welfare system rewarded with premarital sex and births out of ofwedlock by granting benefits to unmarried mothers. The best way to reduce welfare rolls, and therefore illegal, they claimed, was to emphasize abstinence-only sex education programs in schools. In 1996, Congress inserted a provision in the welfare reform bill to encourage states to require abstinence only sex education programs in schools. Congress authorized $ 250000000 grants over five years indicates the need for schools, abstinence-only sex education programs. In addition, five states that showed the largest decline in teen pregnancy, without a corresponding increase in the number of abortions would be allocated an additional $ 400 million.
1996-law is very specific about what abstinence only programs do not teach. By law, states are mandated to teach that "abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is the expected standard," that "abstinence from sexual activity is the only sure way to avoid out of wedlock in the pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and other health problems associated with "only" a mutually faithful monogamous in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity ", that" sexual activity outside marriage may have adverse psychological and physical effects "and that" to have children outside marriage is likely to have adverse consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society. "Moreover, the law prohibits states from using any of the grant money to teach about contraception or how students can protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Proponents argue that abstinence-only sex education programs to instill the values their children and teach them how to say "no" to sex. To support their thesis is the study of sexuality experts who found that 84 percent of girls interviewed young people want to learn "how to say" no "to sex without offending the other person's feelings." Programs teenabstinence supporters also argue that teaching young people about birth control in force to give them permission to participate in premarital sex. According to Elayne Bennett, founder of the National Mentoring abstinence, Best Friends:
Sex is serious and is only for adults. When you spend a lot of time to guide teenagers in all the different equipment to protect themselves, the message is that it is perfectly safe to do this until you can protect yourself. But we know that [using protection] does not protect against many sexually transmitted diseases.
Teens receive mixed messages, Bennett said when he tells them how to protect themselves during pregnancy and STDs, but said it must remain chaste until marriage.
For supporters of abstinence, the failure rate of the methods of many compounds the problem of message of birth control in sex education. According to the obstetrician Joe S. McIlhaney Jr., founder of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health, condoms are not only a high failure rate in preventing sexually transmitted diseases, but also have a high failure rate in preventing pregnancy. A study by researcher Susan C. Weller found that condoms fail to prevent pregnancy up to 13 percent of the time and does not protect against AIDS and other STDs, 31 percent of the time. McIlhaney added that many married couples use condoms correctly, so it is unlikely that inexperienced teens can do, especially when under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The only guaranteed method to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases is abstinence, she says. "Best approaches" safe sex "can provide a risk reduction. Abstinence, by contrast, proposes the elimination of the risks," writes McIlhaney.
McIlhaney and his followers claim that abstinence programs are effective in reducing teen sex and teen pregnancy rates. For example, referring to high school in Chicago, where each class has several girls who were pregnant each year. But three years of sobriety program, the school was completed in three classes-line, where the girls were not pregnant. Washington, DC, only 5 percent of the program of Best Friends girls had never had sex, compared with 63 percent throughout the city. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed in June 1998, the national teen pregnancy has declined since 1990. The Centre has announced that the teen pregnancy rate between 1990 and 1995 decreased by 55 percent to 50 percent without a corresponding increase in the number of abortions. Proponents argue that the trend of teen birth rates to support the claim that abstinence-only education is effective.
Supporters of comprehensive sex education programs, where students are taught about contraception and how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence-only programs claim to be ineffective. Most of the schools, abstinence-only programs were not implemented the curriculum by 1995, they say, so the program can not take credit for reducing the number of teenage pregnancies. In addition, according to some, sex educators, according to the most teenagers, no less, is sex. Pregnancy has declined because more teens using contraception, they say, because fewer teens having sex. In fact, proponents of birth control point out that the number of teenagers who used a condom at first sexual experience tripled between 1975 and 1995, from 18 percent to 54 percent.
The CDC says that methods of birth control are much more reliable than their detractors say. Condoms are "very effective" against AIDS when used correctly and consistently, the center says, and not less than 2 percent of the time. Henry Foster, an adviser to Bill Clinton on teen pregnancy, says that teenagers are not taught the facts about contraception "do not have the facts on how to protect themselves, they are bombarded with media messages" that encouraged to "just do it." Also, many sex educators believe that the anti-contraceptive message can give young people the impression that all forms of teenagers safe sex are ineffective, leading to stop using condoms and other forms birth control altogether. Such a decision would increase the pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, sex educators say.
Comprehensive sex education should also disputes claims abstinence-only programs are effective in reducing teen sex and pregnancy rates. Douglas Kirby, sex education researcher who has studied sex education programs thirty-three, it was found that all six of the abstinence-only programs in his study did not delay sexual intercourse. It is best documented in the abstinence-only sex education program used in schools in California, 1992-1995. The state has spent 15 million three years of teaching abstinence-only 187 000 students in middle schools. Kirby can be found in students who participated in abstinence only classes were less likely to delay sexual intercourse or to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases than students who had participated in abstinence-only classes. Kirby study also found that comprehensive sex education programs do not promote sexual activity.
According to Kirby, "Sexuality and HIV education programs do not increase sexual intercourse, is accelerating the onset of sexual intercourse, increases the frequency of intercourse, or increasing the number of sexual partners."
Most sex educators agree that the most effective programs in reducing adolescent sexuality and teen pregnancy to combine information on the values of abstinence programs and safe sex information sex education programs integral. Moreover, surveys show that most parents want their children to learn about contraception. However, this consensus has not stopped the debate on sex education be taught in public schools. At issue: sex education examines the morality and effectiveness of abstinence programs in comprehensive sexuality education and other issues of sexuality.
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