Social Impacts Are Important
Is it important to educate teens about the costs -- personal and social -- that can result from unprotected sex? You bet!
Should we have classes that help teens understand the physical and emotional changes that mark puberty? You bet -- because I'll lay you odds that parents aren't equipped (intellectually or emotionally) to do this. (Research backs me up.) And these should happen before not after puberty.
Turning to another Red State bastion, Utah, I find this observation, from an MD:
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Clear science repeatedly shows that honest, complete sexual education, including how to use condoms, delays the age at which teens initiate sexual activity and makes them more likely to use condoms. Utah law currently keeps our teachers from providing complete information to our children. While Utah has lower rates of teen pregnancy than many states, our rates far exceed most industrialized countries where honest and complete education occurs. Additionally, 20 percent of HIV cases in the United States are acquired during the teen years, an issue worthy of prevention.
There are those pesky social costs again.
Social Good Or Political Posturing?
I keep asking myself: what is the origin of this political issue? Is it merely political posturing?
The linkage of funding to faith-based initiatives suggests it's pandering.
Policy that ignores science (teaching about pregnancy and AIDS prevention measures works in other Western cultures -- reducing short-term and long-term social costs) suggests it's posturing. In other words, if we really wanted to save money (reduce social costs), we'd emulate our Western neighbors.
If it's political pandering or posturing, what parental fear is being tapped?
Try This Scenario On For Size
Say your child takes a class that explains basic biology ... shows the benefits of abstinence (to society, to the individual) .... helps adolescent girls develop sufficient confidence that they can "say no" to the peer pressure that leads many to early sexual experimentation ... and furthermore explains that condoms are a joint (not just the guy) responsibility that helps prevent pregnancy and AIDs.
Please, can some parent tell me what is horrible in this scenario.
If you -- the parental units -- believe abstinence is the preferred route for your teens -- why in the world do you believe that knowledge (oops, there's Eve and the Apple) will tempt your children such that they will disregard your teachings and values? If that's the case -- that your influence ends where the classroom's begins -- then the issues between you and your child are far bigger than sex-ed.
Here's a politically unfeasible proposal. You don't want your child to have to attend a public school sex-ed class? Fine. Just sign the paperwork that says if (when?) your child gets pregnant or gets a girl pregnant that you take full financial and legal responsibility associated with the birth and rearing of that child. Til the child is 18. No Aid to Families with Dependent Children. No Medicaid. Full-price (no insurance subsidy) medical visits (after all, your child's behavior is driving up everyone else's health care costs).
See how unreasonable that looks?
Politics Is About Social Consensus
That's because we (society) have decided that there are social benefits to certain actions -- and so we (through our elected representatives) decide to collectively fund them through taxes. We also decide that there are social costs to other behavior -- and, as a last resort, turn to the rule of law as a method of implementation or deterrent. Right now, the rule of law (push abstinence-only education) seems contrary to the data.
Just as parents can ask that their children "opt-out" of class field trips -- give parents the authority (I can't believe that they don't already have it!) to "opt out" of sex education. Then let the rest of us, as a nation, emulate the success of our Western neighbors .... and reduce teen pregnancy, to the benefit of our children and our society.
After all, parents tell their kids not to cross the street alone. But they also teach them to look both ways.