by Sandra Hong
NARR
Lucy Sandstrom's two daughters, ages 10 and 16, go to private school where they're taught to wait until marriage to have sex. They are also taught how to use condoms. Sandstrom says it's important for schools to offer information about contraception, particularly for young people who can't get it elsewhere.
TAPE: Lucy
I'm close to my girls, so I guess that's good, but for parents who don't open up at least there's the school that will teach them of what's out there, especially with all the diseases ...
NARR
Sex ed programs funded with federal money can only talk about contraception in terms of its failure rates, and emhpasize abstinence as the only way to guarantee protection from pregnancy and sexually tranmitted diseases. Under the guidelines, these programs must also teach that healthy sexual activity is between two married, monogamous people and that to have sex otherwise could harm them emotionally and physically.
The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, or SIECUS, is trying to loosen the guidelines. Adrienne Verrelli of the sexuality council says the abstinence message speaks only to a select group of young people.
TAPE: Verilli
There is no room for discussion ... abstinence-only people have only onemessage ... if so many people are left out of the discussion?
NARR
Verrelli adds the guidelines don't acknowledge people are marrying later in life and don't provide accurate information about the effectiveness of contraceptives . Abstinence advocates say they are trying to shift the expectation of sexual behavior for young people in the same direction of cigarette smoking, cheating or driving without a seatbelt.
TAPE: Joe
And yet in some weird way we just accept they're having sex as inevitable.
NARR
Joe McIlhaney is on the presidential advisory council on HIV/AIDS and founder of a research center in Austin called the Medical Institute for Sexual Health. He says the debate revolves around different ideas of how young people behave.
TAPE: Joe
There's this fatalistic, paternalistic attitude toward young people who say, well there's nothign we can do. They're going to have sex and what can we do.
NARR
Whatever the two sides may say about young people and sex, there is good news. Teen pregnancy rates are down significantly ... 30 percent in the past 10 years. One study by a research group in favor of contraceptive education attributed only 25 percent of the decline to decreased sexual activity and 75 percent was due to more effective contraceptive practice. The Alan Guttmacher Institute estimated the figures using national sexual behavior data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abstinence advocates argue that calculating statistics such as these are near impossible. And they say the risks of sex are beyond just pregnancy and disease.
Leslee Unrew of Abstinence Clearinghouse in South Dakota.
TAPE: Leslee
It's not good to get your heart broken ...
NARR
Both Unrew and McIlhaney point to studies that show depression and suicide rates are higher in sexually active teens. Verrelli at the sexuality council says it shows the need for sex ed programs that help teens understand how to build and maintain relationships.
In the meanwhile, Verrelli and others are fighting to stop the flow of more money into abstinence until marriage programs and helping states pass separate comprehensive sex ed legislation.
For Columbia Radio News, this is Sandra Hong
NARR
Lucy Sandstrom's two daughters, ages 10 and 16, go to private school where they're taught to wait until marriage to have sex. They are also taught how to use condoms. Sandstrom says it's important for schools to offer information about contraception, particularly for young people who can't get it elsewhere.
TAPE: Lucy
I'm close to my girls, so I guess that's good, but for parents who don't open up at least there's the school that will teach them of what's out there, especially with all the diseases ...
NARR
Sex ed programs funded with federal money can only talk about contraception in terms of its failure rates, and emhpasize abstinence as the only way to guarantee protection from pregnancy and sexually tranmitted diseases. Under the guidelines, these programs must also teach that healthy sexual activity is between two married, monogamous people and that to have sex otherwise could harm them emotionally and physically.
The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, or SIECUS, is trying to loosen the guidelines. Adrienne Verrelli of the sexuality council says the abstinence message speaks only to a select group of young people.
TAPE: Verilli
There is no room for discussion ... abstinence-only people have only onemessage ... if so many people are left out of the discussion?
NARR
Verrelli adds the guidelines don't acknowledge people are marrying later in life and don't provide accurate information about the effectiveness of contraceptives . Abstinence advocates say they are trying to shift the expectation of sexual behavior for young people in the same direction of cigarette smoking, cheating or driving without a seatbelt.
TAPE: Joe
And yet in some weird way we just accept they're having sex as inevitable.
NARR
Joe McIlhaney is on the presidential advisory council on HIV/AIDS and founder of a research center in Austin called the Medical Institute for Sexual Health. He says the debate revolves around different ideas of how young people behave.
TAPE: Joe
There's this fatalistic, paternalistic attitude toward young people who say, well there's nothign we can do. They're going to have sex and what can we do.
NARR
Whatever the two sides may say about young people and sex, there is good news. Teen pregnancy rates are down significantly ... 30 percent in the past 10 years. One study by a research group in favor of contraceptive education attributed only 25 percent of the decline to decreased sexual activity and 75 percent was due to more effective contraceptive practice. The Alan Guttmacher Institute estimated the figures using national sexual behavior data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abstinence advocates argue that calculating statistics such as these are near impossible. And they say the risks of sex are beyond just pregnancy and disease.
Leslee Unrew of Abstinence Clearinghouse in South Dakota.
TAPE: Leslee
It's not good to get your heart broken ...
NARR
Both Unrew and McIlhaney point to studies that show depression and suicide rates are higher in sexually active teens. Verrelli at the sexuality council says it shows the need for sex ed programs that help teens understand how to build and maintain relationships.
In the meanwhile, Verrelli and others are fighting to stop the flow of more money into abstinence until marriage programs and helping states pass separate comprehensive sex ed legislation.
For Columbia Radio News, this is Sandra Hong