By Ruben Obregon
According to the AP, a CDC study found that 1 in 4 teen girls, aged 14 to 19, has a sexually transmitted disease. The infection rate among those who have ever had sex was 40%.
African American teens had a higher incidence of infection - nearly half of them had at least one STD compared to 20% among whites and hispanics. This news isn't good - especially in light of the fact that black women accounted for 66% of HIV/AIDS diagnoses among women during 2005. 
This is troubling news to say the least. Despite the widespread availability of condoms - which don't offer perfect protection against STDs to begin with - sexually transmitted diseases remain a serious problem.
As long as teens don't use condoms correctly and consistently, this problem is not going to significantly change any time soon. Additionally, condoms cannot offer high degrees of protection against STDs that are transmitted via skin to skin contact.
Some claim that comprehensive sexuality education programs will increase condom usage - but will such programs result in drastic changes? Probably not.
So what can be done to change the situation? Better diagnosis, quicker treatment to prevent further transmission, and abstinence counseling.
Abstinence counseling for the sexually active? Yes, sexually active teens are capable of stopping their sexual activity, but many need help to do so.
But there is more that can be done - our government, at all levels, along with public and private organizations can push for a long term cultural shift towards abstinence.
Our culture should promote abstinence until marriage, fidelity, and healthy sexuality. Unfortunately, cultural changes rarely happen overnight, so this change will take time, and there will be bumps along the way. But in the long run, such a shift will offer true long term reductions.
Some argue that abstinence isn't the answer to these problems, and that teens are going to have sex regardless of such a shift. While it's true that some teens will engage in sexual activity despite cultural pressure not to, the percentage that do will be significantly lower. Among this smaller group of sexually active teens, condom usage will still be inconsistent, and sexually transmitted diseases will still be common - but the problem will be on a much smaller scale.
Finally, as I have pointed out time and time again, STD clinics aren't full of teens who abstained from risky sexual activity...
Take off your blinders. Regardless of whether you promote abstinence or not, teens WILL continue to have premarital sex. Period. In fact, when I grew up in the 80's, the most sexually active kids were those of the pastor and the uber religious. You have to be smart about raising teens. Studies have just proven how completely uneffective abstinence only has been. You need to wake up.
Wow, welcome to the ProIdiotBlogs. Did you ever stop to think that the one girl in four who had the disease was the one who received abstinence counseling in lieu of std safety education? WOW, what a surprise!
Abstinence only doesn't work. Nor should it. Sex is a healthy and proper part of every human being's life.
"Finally, as I have pointed out time and time again, STD clinics aren't full of teens who abstained from risky sexual activity..."
No, they're full of teens who tried, and, when nature called, found themselves quite unprepared with condoms.
As an HIV/AIDS prevention tester and counselor, I can tell you that messages of abstinence only are completely ineffective. Only teaching young people to abstain from sex instead of teaching them about protecting themselves should and when they have sex is criminal.
Seven years of conservative abstinence moralizing has produced the same results as the conservatives war on terror, on drugs and immigration control. Not to mention all the damage that their absence due to "government non-interference" has created in relation to the environment, economy, and virtually every middle class social value in this country. Anyone who sees Republican values as anything other than evil must hate America as much as they obviously hate Americans.
How old are you? 17? Yeesh. Thats the kind of altruistic statement fundemantal right wingers regurgitate when they are 5. You have no fundemental right to force people into abstinance and second of all disease rates are higher among 'abstainers'.
Define "healthy sexuality" please.
Listen, teens are not animals. They don't instinctually have sex "when nature calls". I'm 18 years old and when I was in my very early teens, I made the decision to abstain from sex until I became married. I think the arguement that abstinence only education doesn't work is only an excuse from people who decide not to use self control.
So I guess all that abstinence-only sexual "education" is working.
By enforcing sexual ignorance, religious fundamentalists are imposing their own sick morals on our children.
The more young people of sexual age are not informed about condoms, the more they get pregnant or contract STDs.
Check the rates: in the states with the most fundamentalists (think Southern Babtists, et al) you also get the highest rates of divorce, incest, teen pregnancy and domestic abuse.
Ignorance isn't bliss. This is your own wacky chickens home to roost.
FREE CONDOMS and BIRTH CONTROL FOR TEENS!
NO QUESTIONS ASKED!
SEX EDUCATION THAT ACTUALLY EDUCATES!
We nex the sex ed. that really tells it like it is, make sure everyone is hearing the truth. Condoms do not prevent all STD's but they stop some of them. We need to let the kids know that once you get it, you have it for life.
The vaccine needs to be pushed for HPV, it is a lifetime of disease and maybe a shortened life for one mistake.
My daughter is an RN and really tells the kids coming in how serious this issue is, she hears about their risky behavior.
And finally, we need to go after the 20 to 25 year old experienced boys who go after the 15 and 16 year old girls. The older guy with the car and some money and knows the smooth talk. Police finding underage girls with these guys need to follow thru with the reports and notify parents.
This is a very interesting study with a disease breakdown as follows: "Human papillomavirus, or HPV, affected 18% of the girls surveyed, chlamydia 4%, trichomoniasis 2.5%, and herpes simplex virus 2%."
This is encouraging news because 2 of these diseases are fully curable and one can be vaccinated against. The program to universally immunize individuals against HPV could cut down the STD rate by 18% while antibiotics can cure 2nd and 3rd place diseases. Unfortunately, herpes is a life long disease and we cannot heal that.
Abstinence is a worthy goal and one that I will uphold till my own marriage but the health of our children and our population must take priority. Regardless of the average level of sexual activity across age levels, we as a nation have an opportunity to knock several STDs down a peg and reduce the national infection rate. Would it not be foolish to ignore this opportunity?
Abstinence will work if adults stop selling sex to our children through the media. We need to show teens more of the consequences of indiscriminate sex.
The most important thing (which unfortunately is missing here) is the need for higher ideals (psycho-spiritual) in life. Until people's minds, not just those of teens/youth, develop higher psycho-spiritual ideals in life, they will continue to be dominated by sexuality and face the consequences....abstinence by itself will continue to remain merely an empty slogan!
It is time to realize that the current policy is a failure. No amount of signed contracts by 8th graders, chastity rings or promises is going to curb the innate human desire to reproduce. To be connected to another soul. Especially when those souls are "in love". It is time to stop pushing agendas, and offer sound, medical facts. Condoms hardly ever break. They offer the best protection. If you want to keep your kids safe, may I suggest that you talk to them. Every day. From the time they are little. Until the time that they are big. Open the channels of communication and educate your own children. I thank the Lord that I did, and now I still have two teen boys that are virgins. But when they decide to take the plunge you bet your booty they will be completely responsible for their own well being, as well as the well being of their partners.
It seems so hypocritical that the people screaming for laws and mandates about teen sex are the same people that want less government.
It's fine, abstinence people get exactly what they deserve. They get a bland, tiresome, coffin-polishing life. And they get to see their daughters wallow in the same thing. Singing in church... working at mom and pop's hardware store until they're all shriveled up... playing piano... rocking back and forth on the front porch... waiting... keeping that coffin nice and shiny for it's big day.
"when nature called"?? sheesh. Equating premarital sex with a bodily function that has medical consequences if not performed is pathetic. It is a bad choice, but a choice nevertheless.
WOW. Condoms "don't offer perfect protection against STDs to begin with." An impermeable barrier placed between the inserted penis and the receiving orifice has no effect on a pathogen's ability to cross a mucosal surface?? The level of intelligence and thought given to this piece is astounding! No wonder most people think pro-life activists have psychological impediments to reason.
Fighting the distribution of contraceptives in lieu of abstinance education is wrong and probably causes more damage than good. You also contradict yourself in your own article claiming first that condoms don't protect against STD, then write that condoms don't offer high degrees of protection. Which is it - none or high degrees? What is your source for that? Would you rather not have condoms available at all? Are you also fighting the distribution of the new cervical cancer vacine because most women get HPV via sexual contact? People that just preach abstinance are only kidding themselves and trying to force others to do what they preach and often not as they do themselves.
Dude, he wrote "condoms don't offer PERFECT protection..." It seems that he wasn't the one making the contradiction...
I think we'll stay in this trouble as long as we think that people only connect intimately through sex. The youth are perfectly capable of developing very deep relationships while not having sex. I completely agree with the post that said that we adults should stop feeding them sex, sex, sex everywhere! Who can stand against a barrage of constant lust on tv, billboards, etc?
It's just funny that back when sexuality wasn't all over the place, a quarter of teen girls did NOT have STDs...
A quarter of teen age girls did not have std's in the 80's or 90's either. Logic dictates the trigger of this epidemic is not random chance, so therefore it might it be the radical policy changes in the past 7 years? Popular culture is no more permissive than in the past generation, it's government initiated behavioral modification, which is more regressive and puritanical than ever. What changed is the Bushies pandered to their base - the religious right and tried to control human sexuality through executive order. Talk about too much government! They would have been better off requiring mandatory education and licensing for prospective parents -- imagine the damage they could have done then!
This is rather eye opening, but not very surprising. I'm not for abstinence education as I think it doesn't work and goes against the concept of free will.
The issue involves education and knowledge. And as long as school budgets keep getting cut, there will be less and less time to focus on the important real world issues that children should know about to at least live a healthy life.
It's an odd contradiction when the government continues to stigmatize sex and the media glamorizes it and when they're both called on their actions, they talk a lot but then they either make very small changes or never change at all.
The whole study is flawed, since they only used 800 girls in the whole study. What a crock. Its just a scare tactic to get the girls vaccinated against 4 of the 76 strains that can cause cervical cancer.