Persuasive Sex Education

Each year 850,000 adolescent girls become pregnant. 41.3% of pregnancy are teens 15-19 years old and 20% of abortions are teens. With the growing use of birth control in teens in the last decade teen pregnancy rates are steadily going down. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rates, but we also have the most resources to fix this problem. When used correctly, birth control is 99.7% effective.

1 in 4 teens contract a sexually transmitted disease every year. When one catches a disease they usually don’t realize it, because they don’t get tested. When someone catches a disease and they have sexual intercourse it goes to that person and so on. Being a teen and getting pregnant causes a lot of health risks for the baby and the young woman. The New Charity Report states, “Girls under the age of 15 are 5 times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their 20’s, and that babies born to younger mothers are also at a greater risk.” It also states, “ Worldwide, complications in pregnancy are the “number one killer” of girls and young women aged 15-19, the report says, adding to that 50,000 teenage girls and young women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year, in many cases because their bodies are not ready to bear children” (NP, World Health Organization).

This can be explained by, “Studies of pregnant women in New York City welfare hotels have shown their babies are twice as likely to weigh less than five pounds at birth when compared to all pregnant women. Low birthweight babies are at greater risk of blindness, deafness, brain damage, and even death”(Hyde 56). Taking this into consideration, homeless children’s academic performance is hindered because of their poor cognitive development and the circumstances of their homelessness, including constant mobility. Math, reading, spelling, and vocabulary tests are the tests that homeless children most often struggle to succeed on and likely result in being held back a year in school(Hart-Shegos 3). This can be seen in Dicey’s Song through Maybeth’s character and the difficulty she has to prosper in school.

Levitt and Dubner credit Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973, as the factor which explained the gap left by common explanations. Their casual link is that the women who are most likely to get abortion are also more likely to be poor, teenage, and unfit to raise a child. These children, if not aborted, were a generation who could easily become criminals or teenage mothers. To further consolidate their point, Levitt and Dubner note that states which legalized abortion had their crime rates fall earlier, the crime drop was among the young, and that there was a direct correlation between abortion rate and crime reduction in various regions inclusive of other countries, regardless of the amount of crime

In fact, national data shows that the “more strongly abstinence is emphasized in state laws and policies, the higher the average teenage pregnancy and birth rate” (Stanger-Hall). However, studies showed the opposite effect for states that offered a comprehensive approach to sex education, providing information about methods of birth control and contraception, along with encouraging abstinence. Those states tended to have the lowest teen pregnancy rates (Stanger-Hall and

Studies have shown that unvaccinated children are 35 times more likely to contract the disease then immunized children." Parents are putting their children at risk of a life threatening disease out of fear. The possible side effects of the vaccine are nowhere near as like to occur as contracting the disease without the vaccine. The eighth leading cause of death in children is preventable, yet some parents are too stubborn to get their children the vaccine to completely wipe out the measles and other life threatening

The same article goes more in detail explaining how this system is impractical, “Why aren’t abstinence-only programs working for US teens? First, they are simply impractical. In the 21st century, age at puberty has decreased and age at marriage has increased, creating a greater gap between sexual maturity and marriage than ever before (Weaver et al., 2005). In Western countries, sex before marriage has become the norm, and it is statistically less normal for a woman to be a virgin at marriage than a non-virgin (Weaver et al., 2005). In the US specifically, teens begin having sex at an average of 16.3 years of age (Weaver et al., 2005).

Research shows unintended pregnancies are associated with birth defects low birth weight, elective abortion, and maternal depression, reduced rates of breastfeeding and increased risk of physical violence during pregnancy (10 Colorado winnable battles). Teen mothers are more likely to drop out from high school and not earn high school diploma. Avoiding unwanted pregnancy helps to reduce social and economic costs that are expenditure on health care. Every $ 1.00 invested in publicly funded family planning saves 7.09 in Medicaid. Colorado has now more than 40 % drop in teen pregnancy because of CDPHE family planning initiative that provided services for more than 30,000 for low or no

Schools want what’s best for children’s health right? By starting school later, it ensures their health. According to http://time.com/3162265/school-should-start-later-so-teens-can-sleep-urge-doctors/, “Students who don’t get the recommended amount of sleep also tend to have higher rates of anxiety and mood disorders...” Anxiety and mood disorders that swing a severe blow to students, so by letting them sleep in, the chance of them getting these problems are lowered. Letting the students got to school at a later time also stops many health problems. As http://www.startschoollater.net/why-change.html says, “Sleep deprivation 's impacts include: weight gain and eating disorders and increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular problems, and diabetes; reduced immunity; depression; anxiety; substance abuse; mood swings; behavior problems; suicidal ideation; and potential impacts on brain development.” All of these are harmful to the health of the next generation!

About half of all South African teenagers aged between 15 and 19 reported having had sex. Teenage pregnancy is considered as one major distraction to the success of many girls’ education. Teenage pregnancy is a social problem with biological and physical consequences. Sexual education is now part of the learning area ‘Life Skills” in schools, but teenagers still fall pregnant because they are not open and lack transparency when discussing sexual matters. Teenage pregnancy has always been a medical problem no matter how many young girls are educated about sexual intercourse, condoms, contraceptives and HIV/AIDS.

It is a lose-lose situation when both school officials and parents are avoidant about this important subject because they feel it will tarnish their children’s minds with indecent thoughts. Those officials instead organize sexual education course material around abstinence of sex until marriage and because of that students miss out on learning vital subject material pertaining to their own sexual well-being. While abstinence is the goal and teaching teenagers about sex seems counterintuitive, “there’s actually a large body of research proving that comprehensive sex ed is an effective tool for accomplishing [abstinence]” (Culp-Ressler). Today’s kids should not be shielded from certain aspects of sex because they seem too graphic or inappropriate for school. Nothing is too graphic when it comes to potentially altering someone 's life from going down the wrong path.

We find that this action is reckless and unjustified for people to take the initiative to decide the ending point of young people’s lives. There are 1.1 million abortions in the U.S. each year and on top of that, the U.S. abortion rate is among the highest out of all developed countries. Using that data that concludes that there are 3,150 abortions every day in the United States. A step we need to take in order to decrease the abortion rates is to increase sexual education classes throughout high school and, that class must be mandatory for all students. About 21% of all pregnancies end in abortion and increasing mandatory sexual education classes will benefit that.

Teen pregnancy is an epidemic that has swept the nation for many years now. A quarter in all teen pregnancies result in abortion. According to abortion statistics there are three reasons for choosing abortion: "A baby would intervene in their daily lives like work, school, or other responsibilities. They could not afford a baby, and one half of women who get an abortion say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their partner. "(Guttmacher Institute).