Spread information, not STDs

[katie Bonner]

When I entered my senior year of high school my mom came to me and
said it was time to put me on birth control. She didn’t ask me if I
was having sex, but knew that if I were she would rather I be safe
than sorry.
They taught health at my high school, but I really didn’t learn
anything about sex. They didn’t teach me to use protection or very
much about STDs. I ended up getting most of my sex education from my
friends and my subscription to Seventeen magazine.
Some people never receive that information, though. With no one to
inform them about safe sex practices, they don’t learn what to do to
protect themselves against pregnancy and STDs.
I wasn’t taught that about one in six people has genital herpes, and I
wasn’t taught that by age 50, 80 percent of women will have had some
exposure to HPV.
According to the National Survey of Family Growth, about 96 percent of
teens are given some kind of formal sex education. However, only 62
percent of males and 70 percent of females are taught methods of birth
control.
The rest are simply taught to just say no, which is obviously pretty
unrealistic.
As much as parents want to believe their kids are safe from the
pressures of having sex, they aren’t. Instead of hiding the concept
from them, parents should take steps to keep them safe from an
unwanted pregnancy or STD.
It’s okay to emphasize abstinence, but they should still be receiving
all the information.
Last year, the health care law signed by President Barack Obama gave a
$375-million grant to different programs for sexual education that
were not just abstinence-based.
More at http://herpes-respect.blogspot.com/2011/04/statepressspread-information-not-stds.html