Here's a completely unacceptable statistic: According to the CDC, more than three million teen girls have a sexually transmitted infection (STI). That's one in four.
The news is even starker when broken out by ethnicity. Nearly half the black teens had at least one STI, while the rate was "only" 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens.
People across the country are asking how this could happen to our youth. Sadly, though, the study only highlights what has always been very clear to Planned Parenthood and other health care providers who treat teens every day.
We know where the blame should lie — not with teens, but with the $1.5 billion failure of a national sex education policy that promotes abstinence-only programs. Abstinence-only programs are not only bad education; they support ignorance, disparage science, and leave our kids unable to make responsible decisions about sex.
We need educational programs in our schools that will keep teens healthy. Sex ed must include information about birth control, healthy communication, responsible decision making, and safer sex, as well as information about abstinence.
Help us tell Congress that it should put the right foot forward and immediately stop funding dangerous abstinence-only programs. It’s time to put money toward real solutions that will help prevent sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies among teens.