Comprehensive Sex Education

• provide young people with the tools to make informed decisions and build healthy relationships;
• stress the value of abstinence while also preparing young people for when they become sexually active;
• provide medically accurate information about the health benefits and side effects of all contraceptives, including condoms, as a means to prevent pregnancy and reduce the risk of contracting STIs, including HIV/AIDS;
• encourage family communication about sexuality between parent and child;
• teach young people the skills to make responsible decisions about sexuality, including how to avoid unwanted verbal, physical, and sexual advances; and
• teach young people how alcohol and drug use can effect responsible decision making

• “Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavioral effects.” Many either delayed or reduced sexual activity, reduced the number of sexual partners, or increased condom or contraceptive use.
• None of the comprehensive programs hastened the initiation of sex or increased the frequency of sex.
• Comprehensive sex education programs worked for all youth populations: “Comprehensive programs worked for both genders, for all major ethnic groups, for sexually inexperienced and experienced teens, in different settings, and in different communities.”
• Programs that were implemented with fidelity in the same type of setting and with similar youth were found to be just as effective as the originally evaluated program. Therefore, it was found that programs could be replicated and widely disseminated to youth across the country.

• Two-thirds of the programs significantly improved one or more sexual behaviors.
• Many programs either delayed or reduced sexual activity, or increased condom use.
• At least 10 interventions had long-term behavioral effects lasting two or more years; some lasted as long as the effects were measured—three or more years.

• Studies show that when teens are educated about condoms and have access to them, levels of condom use at first intercourse increase while levels of sex stay the same.[3]
• Other research has found that teens that practiced contraception consistently in their first sexual relationship are more likely to continue doing so than those who used no method or who used a method inconsistently.[4]
• According to a study by researchers from Guttmacher and Columbia University published in the January 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, approximately 86% of the decline in teenage pregnancy in this country between 1995 and 2002 was due to dramatic improvements in contraceptive use, including increases in the use of individual methods, increases in the use of multiple methods, and substantial declines in nonuse. Just 14% of the decline could be attributed to a decrease in sexual activity.
  • Abstinence played a greater role in decreasing pregnancy among younger teens aged 15–17, but even among this age group (in which sexual activity declined a healthy 17% between 1995 and 2002), only 23% of the decline in teen pregnancy could be attributed to decreased sexual activity.
  • Among 18–19-year-olds, there was no change in sexual activity during this period; accordingly, the pregnancy rate decline among this group was entirely attributable to improved contraceptive use.[5]

• For example, the American Medical Association “urges schools to implement comprehensive, developmentally appropriate sexuality education programs” and “supports federal funding of comprehensive sex education programs that stress the importance of abstinence in preventing unwanted teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and also teach about contraceptive choices and safer sex.[6]

• According to the results of a 2005-2006 nationally representative survey of U.S. adults published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, more than eight in 10 of those polled support comprehensive sex education.[8]
• A survey conducted by the Kennedy School of Government, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and National Public Radio found that over 90% of parents of middle school and high school students believe it is very or somewhat important to have sexuality education as part of the school curriculum. The vast majority of those polled also stated that federal government funding should be used to fund more “comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives” instead of programs that have “abstaining from sexual activity” as their only purpose.[9]
• A majority of voters in nearly every demographic category, including Democrats, Republicans, and independents, as well as Catholics and evangelical Christians, support comprehensive sex education.[10]