The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that more young teens attending middle schools need to be trained how to use a slew of contraceptives, including condoms, abortifacients and other modes of artificial birth control.
The government agency also stressed that middle school teenagers need to be taught “necessary skills” so that they won’t contract a plethora of sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV and herpes. In its report, the CDC also said in its report that the “preventative measures” American middle schoolers must learn are to avoid unplanned pregnancies.
The results of CDC’s latest survey of American middle schools and high schools — administered once every other year — were published Wednesday to divulge the evolving health behaviors of students. Its 2014 School Health Profiles Survey findings were presented last week at the National HIV Prevention Conference, prompting the CDC to press for more aggressive sex education programs.
According to a CDC press release, students’ sex ed training in schools is not up to par.
“[F]ewer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools teach all 16 topics recommended by … [the CDC] as essential components of sexual health education,” the government agency reported.
Some of the topics covered include the importance of using “condoms consistently and correctly,” the “benefits of being sexually abstinent,” the “importance of limiting the number of sexual partners,” and using condoms “at the same time as another … [kind of] contraception.” The CDC also states that 6th graders through high school seniors must also receive training about how to get condoms, “how HIV and other STDs are transmitted,” the “efficacy of condoms,” “how to correctly use condoms,” and the health consequences of HIV, other STDs and pregnancy.”
Sex ed. the CDC’s way
Included in the CDC study is the examination of the percentage of schools that are taught each of the recommended areas of sexual education, LifeSiteNews.com reports. It also discloses the median of each state before providing its national assessment of teen behavior.
“A median of 75 percent of schools taught ‘[h]ow to create and sustain healthy and respectful relationships,’ while education on how HIV and other STDs are transmitted and ‘health consequences of HIV, other STDs, and pregnancy’ were taught 75 percent of the time,” LifeSiteNews’ Dustin Siggins points out. “Schools least often taught ‘how to obtain’ and ‘how to correctly use’ condoms, at 27 percent and 23 percent. Seventeen percent of middle schools taught all 16 recommended aspects of sexual education.”
Ranked number one on the list is STD prevention, with 95 percent of middle and high schools instructing their students on “how HIV and other STDs are transmitted,” as well as about the “health consequences of HIV and other STDs and pregnancy.” A close number two was abstinence, which registered at 94 percent. For high schools, the lowest two on the CDC’s recommended list of 16 were “how to obtain condoms,” (60 percent trained students on this) and “how to correctly use a condom” (54 percent of high schools). Nearly half (46 percent) of high schools in America teach each of the CDC’s 16 recommended aspects of sex ed.
Honing in on public school education on seven specific contraceptives, the CDC obtained information on IUDs and several other forms of birth control that can also be used as abortifacients by teenage students.
“Sixty-six percent taught how to ‘the pill,’ 61 percent the ‘patch,’ 58 percent the ‘ring,’ 61 percent the ‘shot,’ 55 percent implants, 60 percent the IUD, and 49 percent emergency contraception,” the CDC divulged, according to LifeSiteNews.com. “Forty-three percent of schools taught all seven methods of birth control. Nineteen large urban communities were also sampled, though New York City was notably excluded. While the urban communities’ median numbers were often within five percent of the national median, both middle schools and high schools were far more likely to teach students about condoms.”
More exposure?
CDC National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention Director Jonathan Mermin stated that public schools must be more aggressive in its training of American teenage students.
“We need to do a better job of giving our young people the skills and knowledge they need to protect their own health,” Mermin insisted in his CDC press release. “It’s important to teach students about healthy relationships and how to reduce sexual risk before they start to have sex.”
Also noted in the press release is how condoms and other artificial birth control methods, devices, and drugs such as abortifacients are “essential topics in HIV, STDs, pregnancy prevention, and other health subjects.” The CDC called these classroom discussions “age-appropriate topics for middle and high schools based on the scientific evidence for what helps young people avoid risk.”
Even though a CDC media spokesperson would not tell LifeSiteNews whether it suggests educating students about the side effects of contraception or how numerous contraceptives can act as abortifacients, confirmation was given that it supports the public schools’ greater role in training kids to make “educated” sexual choices.
“CDC does not recommend the selection of a specific curriculum, but recognizes the authority of local school districts to make sexual health education curriculum decisions,” the spokesperson told LifeSiteNews. “CDC emphasizes that all sexual health education should be medically accurate and consistent with scientific evidence.”
The CDC also suggested that its brand of sexual morality should be inculcated in students to bring about what it considers society’s good, giving what many consider to be lip service about trying to accommodate local mores.
“[Sex education] should allow students to develop and demonstrate developmentally appropriate sexual health-related knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices,” CDC continued. “It should also be consistent with community values, and developed with the active involvement of parents. What is critical is that our students get age-appropriate instruction across key areas of sexual health in both middle and high school in order to develop the skills they need to be healthy in adulthood.”
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Middle schools: More birth control training, says CDC
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