2.3 Pregnancy Pact - Who's to blame?

The Pregnancy Pact scandal is the most recent event which leaves many parents questioning the effectiveness of the government's policy on preventing teen pregnancy. Many states, such as California and New York, advocate a comprehensive sexual education program while many other states such as Texas, Georgia and Mississippi support an abstinence-only program. While statistics show that programs abstinence-only and protection programs produce similar results in teen pregnancy rate, they do show that teens who received abstinence-only program education have been diagnosed with sexual transmitted infection more than those who received protection program education. With national teen pregnancy rates rising for the first time in 15 years and an increasing rate of sexual transmitted infection, the government should revise its policies in order to prevent teen pregnancy and sexual transmitted infection by advocating a comprehensive sexual education program nationwide.

With a comprehensive sexual education program, teens could learn many different ways to practice safer sex other than the abstinence method. Moreover, comprehensive sexual education provides information on sexual transmitted infections. In addition, it teaches teens about sexual communication as well as sexual abuse. The abstinence program does not offer any basic information regarding intercourse; rather, it tries to convince teenagers that abstinence fosters healthy relationships between men and women. However, with the increasing exposure of sexual contact in music videos and movies, an increasing amount of younger teens are intrigued by the subject. This curious thought then translates into action while ignoring the negative consequences of sex. Most teens around the country have sex on their minds whether they have received abstinence program or comprehensive sexual program or neither. Abstinence-only program does not work, and this embarrassing pregnancy pact scandal only further denounces the effectiveness of the US government's policy against teen pregnancy.

The US government considers children of today as the wealth of tomorrow, yet it fails to provide teenage women the best sexual education they well deserve. Why? Because the US government has not separated itself from faith. 95% of the US population declares themselves as having some kind of religious affiliation, and most of these people are strong advocates of abstinence programs. With politicians' religious interests and lobbyists lobbying against comprehensive sexual education, failed policies against teen pregnancy have not been revised nor reconsidered. The US needs change; it needs to change in order to keep tomorrow's wealth healthy. It needs to change to keep America going. The change must start now, the change starts with comprehensive sexual programs.