Teen pregnancy prevention...promoting healthy sexuality

Today marks the eighth annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and 2007 marks the first increase in the total annual number of teen pregnancies after fourteen years of decline.

Why the increase? In a media call hosted yesterday by RHReality Check, Bill Albert from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy chalked it up to these main factors:

• The 'magic formula' of less sex+more contraception that drove down rates in nineties is slowing or reversing,
• There is less concern among teens about HIV now than in the past--Albert pointed to Kaiser Family Foundation data released last week that shows show dramatic decline in concern about HIV in young adults,
• Greatest increase in teen pregnancy is among those 18 and 19 years, and few prevention messages are geared towards them,
• Prevention fatigue—nothing but good news for fourteen years has contributed to less dedicated resources,
• Our overal culture contributes to and shapes teens’ social scripts.

Whether you agree with the framing or not, there is general agreement that reducing teen pregnancy is a laudable goal. The National Day was originally conceived to call attention to the need for 'comprehensive' sex ed, but the rallying call has been taken up by the ab-only folks as well. And in that spirit, it is Bill Albert's last point I want to take up here. What are the messages that both sides are giving our teens about sex?

Bristol Palin debuted today as a spokesperson for the pro-abstinence Candie's Foundation, whose messages around teen sexuality include:

• Over half of all teens are not having sex, and of the half that are, most regret it and wish they had waited.
• Moreover, some teens lie about having sex...when you think everybody's doing it - and you know you're not - lying can seem like the easiest option.
• We also know from surveys that boys show significant respect—though often unspoken—for girls who resist pressure to have sex and remain virgins.
• It's hard to believe, but most first time sexual relationships are romantic but short-lived. Eight out of ten first time teen sexual relationships last 6 months or less and one-fourth are one-time occurrences. Surprised?

Lying virgins, boys who pressure girls to have sex and then 'respect' them for saying no (and no exploration of how many of those pressuring boys and girls who are saying no might lead into those one-time occurrences that are also known as date rape, see last bullet point), young people filled with regret... these are the legacy of the confusing messages about sexuality give to young people. Is Candie's telling teens not to have sex at all? It sounds like it, but here's what Bristol Palin had to say this morning:

Did you catch the part about don't have sex but have safe sex if you do? Sounds suspiciously like comprehensive sex ed to me. So what is the message here, and how do our young people navigate it?

Annd the mixed messages are coming from both sides. Take a look at these two images, targeted towards teen girls--one by the comp sex ed advocates the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (from early 2000), and one from  Candie's Foundation. You tell me what the clear messages are here around sexuality.

We are confused as a country about sexuality, burdened with shame, and leaving our young people--especially our young women--to walk a tentative tightrope that leaves them bound to fail no matter what they do. Just say no--but be sexy while you do it. Tease and tempt--but don't make 'mistakes', or you'll be dirty.

What is the legacy of ab-only and 'comprehensive' sex education models that focus on disease and pregnancy prevention, that label behaviors (and people) as 'risky' and 'dangerous'? As parents, as legislators, as community members, we need to ask ourselves how we want our children to grow up into adults that are sexually healthy, and if this is really the way to do it. What young people need is help, support, conversation and modeling of sexuality in all its complexity; we need as a society to understand that we are all sexual beings, that sexual desire is normal, and that healthy, responsible choices (like waiting until you are ready to have sex, deciding you are ready to have sex, making decisions to use contraception and condoms) come best not from fear but from empowerment, not from shame and secrecy but from honesty and communication.