JUST ENGAGE

A study released this week showed that at least one in four teenage American girls (over 3 million) has a sexually transmitted disease. That is shocking.

The study, conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was released yesterday, March 11^th, at an STD prevention conference in Chicago. Remarking upon the numbers, many doctors attributed the high rates of STDs to a combination of abstinence-only education and teens’ perception of themselves as invulnerable.

Just as shocking as the percentage of teens that have STDs is the way the numbers break down. The study found that only half of the girls in the study acknowledged having had sex, and that 40 percent of those teens had an STD.  Other girls in the study who had STDs were engaged in other types of intimate behavior (including oral sex) that can spread sexually transmitted disease, but did not consider themselves “sexually active.” There were also racial disparities in the data. Nearly one half of African-American teenagers had at least one STD, while 20 percent of Caucasian and Mexican-Americans were infected.

The teenagers in the study were not tested for all forms of sexually transmitted diseases (for example HIV/AIDS was not tested for) and so the problem may be even more severe than indicated in the study. Of the four diseases that the girls were tested for (human papillomavirus also known as HPV, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and genital herpes), HPV was by far the most prevalent, affecting 18 percent of the girls studied.  Many of these diseases can cause later infertility and cancer, leading US health officials to call for better screening, vaccination and prevention.

One of the best prevention measures that we can take is ensuring that teenagers have access to comprehensive sexual education that:

• is age-appropriate and medically accurate;
• does not teach or promote religion;
• teaches that abstinence is the only sure way to avoid pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases STDs;
• provides comprehensive information about the health benefits and side effects of all contraceptive methods as they relate to both pregnancy and risk reduction for STDs and HIV/AIDS;
• encourages family communication about sexuality;
• teaches interpersonal negotiation skills for young people; and
• teaches young people how alcohol and drug use can affect decision-making.

The resolution recently passed at JCPA’s 2008 Plenum states outlines these criteria and states, “In order to make responsible, healthy decisions, young people need sexuality education that is proven to be effective and will provide the public health information that will keep them safe. Comprehensive sexuality education programs have been found to be effective in delaying the onset of sexual intercourse, reducing the number of sexual partners, and increasing contraception and condom use.”   

 Abstinence-only education without the option for comprehensive sexuality education in public schools has proved a failure. In fact, a recent congressionally commissioned study found that these programs had no measurable impact on delaying sexual initiation or increasing abstinence.

The federal government has already provided more than $1 billion in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in public schools, with no money earmarked for comprehensive sexual education. Unfortunately, the costs of paying for the future health problems (i.e. cervical cancer, infertility) suffered by 26 percent of today’s teenage girls will require significantly more investment. The real tragedy is the burden borne by a generation of teenagers who were not given the necessary information to protect themselves.

 *In order to address this problem, JCPA is supporting the Responsible Education About Life Act (REAL Act), along with our partners at the National Council of Jewish Women. You can find more information about the bill here.