Tell Teens the Facts About Sex

Tell teens the facts about sex

By Dennis S. Ross, Opinion Article, The Times Union (Albany, New York), June 19, 2006

When it comes to sex, teenagers need the facts. Four out of every 10 teenagers report having sex before graduating high school. Yet our education system fails to provide students with the most basic health information, as clergy witness every time we sit down to counsel teenagers and their families about unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

Teenagers need more than "Just Say No." Normal and powerful hormones and passions challenge even the most intelligent and educated adults. Teens need the truth about sex in order to keep themselves safe and healthy.

Comprehensive sex education is the best way to present the facts. It stresses abstinence as the preferred means of avoiding pregnancy, while also providing important information about sexually transmitted infection and contraception through programs that are clinically proven to be effective. Teenagers respect the truth that comprehensive sex education offers. And they know they can rely on the grown-ups who are honest with them.

FACTS: If they do not receive honest information, teenagers will look everywhere -- to urban legends, the Internet or other potentially unreliable sources -- to find out what they think they should know about sex. Teens who act on sexual misinformation expose themselves to potentially catastrophic medical and emotional risks. Young people will be only as honest with us as we are honest with them. By building trusting relations, honest sex education benefits everyone.

We need to change our approach to sex education now. New York saw nearly 40,000 teen pregnancies in one recent year. The highest rates of gonorrhea are among 15- to 24 year-olds, running at more than four times the average for the entire population. Four percent of female high school students and 11% of male high school students reported having sexual intercourse before age 13.

New York does not provide age-appropriate, medically accurate comprehensive sex education, which has been proven to delay sexual behavior, lower pregnancy rates and curtail the transmission of life-threatening sexually transmitted diseases.

Comprehensive sex education programs teach abstinence, while also addressing the risks of sexual activity and the realities of contraception in ways that work. Abstinence-only sex education, which receives millions of dollars through state and federal funding, has no such proven track record. And each day we delay, the teenagers of New York pay the price.

The vast majority of New Yorkers, some 77 percent, want comprehensive sex education taught in the public schools. This strong support carries through all regions of the state and is true for Protestant, Catholic and Jewish New Yorkers. Religious leaders from a wide spectrum of denominations and organizations endorse comprehensive sex education. My denominational organization, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, almost two decades ago called for comprehensive sex education "in the public schools on all levels, from grade school through high school."

FACTS: More than 1,600 clergy from a variety of faith backgrounds have personally endorsed a statement from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America that says, "Our sexuality is God given, and so, too, is the command that we instruct our children so that they will gain understanding and the ability to make wise choices -- we, like a substantial majority of Americans, encourage teenagers to abstain from sexual intercourse. But like a substantial majority of Americans, we also recognize that many will not. Each must be taught about human sexuality, so that each can make informed and responsible choices about his or her sexual life, including the choice to remain abstinent." When it comes to teenagers, let's be honest -- with them and with ourselves. When we treat teenagers with respect and offer them honest information, we will help them stay safe and healthy -- and we will earn their trust. And when they trust us, should they face a time of need, they will turn to us quickly and with confidence.

They will bring their questions and their concerns to us -- clergy, parents and teachers -- with honesty. And they will know we will be there for them with the trust all young people need.

Rabbi Dennis S. Ross is director of Concerned Clergy for Choice in Albany.

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