Statement of SIECUS President Joseph DiNorcia, Jr.
on New Data on Teen STD Rates
A federal study released yesterday that found extremely high rates of STDs among teenage girls caught the attention of the mainstream media. The study, which tested for four of the most common STDs, found that one in four teenage girls and young women is infected with one of these diseases.
The study further found that nearly 50% of African-American teenage girls were infected with an STD. This statistic represents an inexcusable failure to protect minority and underserved communities.
These findings are, perhaps, most disturbing because of the highly preventable nature of most STDs. Clearly young people do not have the information and skills they need to protect themselves.
These results should motivate policymakers, both on the state and federal levels, to redouble their efforts to bring responsible, comprehensive sexuality education to young people. Rather than continuing to pour more resources into failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, our leaders in government must deal with the hard truth that young people are having sex, and yet are woefully ignorant of how to protect themselves from disease. Only when we have armed young people with knowledge about pregnancy- and disease- prevention methods will we begin to see declines in these staggering figures.
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