Sexual Miseducation: 1/3 Of Teens Aren't Taught About Birth Control

How's this for a chilling thought? Only about two-thirds of U.S. teens are taught about birth control in school, according to a recent government study. Even though almost all students take sex ed, they're much more likely to learn about STDs and how to say no than they are to learn about all of the different ways to prevent pregnancy.

That leaves one out of three young men and women whose only education about birth control comes from their family, their friends and that episode of Glee where Quinn gets pregnant.

Here's some context about the need for birth control: Although the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. has been slowly declining over the last few decades, we still have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and birth among comparable countries, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. That's two times higher than teens in the United Kingdom, and ten times higher than teens in Switzerland. If you're looking for an even closer comparison, a U.S. teen is more than three times more likely to become pregnant than a teen living in Canada, our neighbor to the north.

This speaks to a need for more birth control education, ay? Programs that go by "sex ed" but stress only STDs and how to delay sex aren't equipping teens to be sexually responsible adults. Just like anything else taught in schools, sex ed should be geared toward a student's whole life. Even if teens aren't planning on having sex in high school (i.e. abstinence), exposure to information about birth control is vital as they go on to having sex later.

Not everyone is getting information from their parents or their friends, either: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Study reported that around one of three teen boys and one of five teen girls had never talked to a parent about sex education. With the gaps in sex ed, it's possible that teens could walk across the stage of their high school graduation without ever having heard an adult mention a condom or birth control pills.

The quality and content of sex education varies around the country in disturbing ways. Last year, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund released a report that showed more than 9 in 10 Texas school districts teach almost nothing about birth control or disease prevention except abstinence until marriage.

We have to be more vigilant in educating our students about sex. Ignorance is no protection, as pregnant teens around the country find out each year.   

Photo credit: Nate Grigg