Persuasive Essay On Sex Education

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Recommended: Comprehensive sexual education program versus abstinence

Abstinence-only education has been predominant method for teaching sexual education in the U.S. for the past several decades. The goal of all sexual education is to educate young people regarding prevention of unwanted pregnancies and STI transmission. However, abstinence-only education attempts to accomplish this by teaching adolescents to simply not have sex, neither providing any education on contraceptives and STI transmission. While abstinence-only education is technically an effective method there are opinions and statistics that would disagree and conclude that comprehensive sex education is better equipped to educate on a wider range of topics.
The abstinence–only program teaches that the best way to prevent pregnancy is to avoid having sexual intercourse. Though true, there is more to sex education then teaching the act of sex itself. Sexuality, contraception, consent, and the dangers of STI’s are important topics that should not be glossed over for …show more content…

It is true that there is no “foolproof” method to safely prevent unwanted pregnancies and STI transmission while still being sexually active. In the study done by Chin, (2012) he points out that the abstinence-only program and “purity pledges”, which is the promise to wait till marriage, actually increases the number of people that wait till marriage and decreases the sexual activity in teens. Starting sex education within smaller steps help introduce the world but shield the children from the repercussions of being sexually active. This sedates the natural curiosity of the child but at a safe distance. Results of this study indicate that being more open about the full communication of sex does not prevent teens from being sexually active, but rather increases the incidents. Additionally, the effect of the group based study showed a significant decrease in pregnancies and risk reduction from disease (Chin,

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