SEXEDISNOTREPRODUCTIVEHEALTH

Rosemonetlittle

elaborative, and supportive reproductive health educational program for all American students. The implementation of sex education in schools has been resisted for years due to arguments predicated on protecting young people’s virtue, innocence, and chastity. However, the recent surge in interest about sexual health can be largely credited to the prevalence of STIs. In 2018, data for reported STIs was collected that showed 18.6% (12.6 million) persons aged 15 to 24 years comprised infections and 45.5% (11.9 million) were responsible for all incident infections of chlamydia, trichomoniasis, genital herpes, and human papillomavirus. Prevention for STIs depends significantly on current estimates of the health and economical burden of STIs; these estimates regulate the priorities in research, public health decisions, and governmental policies. For example, improved sex education was prioritized by the Chamberlain-Kahn Act of 1918 aimed to address increased cases of gonorrhea and syphilis after World War 1. The Chamberlain-Kahn Act provided funding to public health administrations to implement treatment clinics and educational programs about venereal diseases.

Federal support for improving sexual education became prominent again due to AFLA reporting that in the year 1978 approximately 1,100,000 teenagers were pregnant and unmarried. Senators in Congress debated that the enactment of Title X Family Planning Program promoted premarital sexual relations and abortions leading to the increase of adolescent pregnancies. Congress passed AFLA in 1981; which helped provide funding to public and nonprofit health organizations to administer counseling to promote abstinence until marriage among adolescents, an idea that is still enforced by the law today.

Historically, sex education was implemented across the United States to promote abstinence among young adults, as opposed to providing detailed additional and necessary social and biological education within sex and reproductive health.