I’m just wondering if this scares you? It does me! That’s a lot of girls and a lot of unprotected sex. Makes me wonder what the stats are for the boys – probably the same or close to it.
I was poking around on www.teenpregnancy.org looking for updated teen birth rate statistics and they had a little note asking “What should we do?” They were specifically referring to these alarming STD stats.
Not surprisingly, I think we should quit thinking our government is going to do anything helpful and start focusing on parent education. Parents need to be talking to their kids about STD prevention – not the TV and not the government.
Consider the fact that Congress initiated and sponsored a study of “Community Based Abstinence Programs” last year. They were wondering if they had any long term impact on the kids that went through these programs.
Guess what? They discovered that the kids who went through these programs were the same age at sexual debut (14.9), same number of partners and same condom use rates as kids who didn’t go through these programs.
But don’t you worry – Congress still poured millions of dollars into Abstinence Only programs this year. Our kids are safe from any sort of pragmatic government program that might actually help them.
So, parents. Get on it. Talk to your kids. Their health is at risk.
