Teenagers Have Sex

I remember over 25 years ago the issues I faced as a teenage gal at my local Silicon Valley Highschool (Palo Alto Highschool). I knew other kids were having sex. Yes, really - in highschool. I did not have sex in highschool for one and only one reason: I was scared straight after the school and home sex education I received. I knew that my family was tight on money - and I would need to be able to support myself after highschool. I thought that the only way for me to be able to support myself was to go to college. Because of my explicit sex education - I knew that if I had sex there was a chance I could get pregnant. And I did not want to become a mom before I finished college. Just did not. If I did, I feared I would not be able to finish college. I wanted to be independent, have a career and be able to support myself before I got married. And that is what happened.

Of all the things that I feel are flawed with the issues behind the McCain/Palin ticket, Palin's "princess in dreamland" support of abstinence-only education. McCain voted against teen-pregnancy prevention programs that would have included sex education about contraceptives while Palin opposed funding sexual-education programs in Alaska. Charles Blow of the New York Times today shared the UNICEF findings of teenage birthrate and teen sex. He said "To wit, our ridiculous experiment in abstinence-only education seems to be winding down with a study finding that it didn't work". I would mention details about Palin's daughter as an example, but Obama made a speech asking not to go there - so I won't.

If American's are going to get "real" about sex, we will need to understand that no matter what we say - teenagers will have sex. They need explicit sex-education programs, access to condoms not only for pregnancy prevention but for their health & safety and an infrastructure where they can get the support they need to navigate these dangerous waters. Some don't have a relationship with their parents that is open enough to talk about sex. Some teenagers may be in an environment where they have not emotional support - and see sex as comfort. I would like to see more programs available to empower teenage girls and boys to look forward to college, independence and time to mature before they have kids.

Original Silicon Valley Moms Blog post. Beth B. is a Co-Founder of the Silicon Valley Moms Group and contributes at MOMocrats.