Florida is moving away from comprehensive sex education in favor of abstinence-only messaging, thanks to recent changes in state law.
It’s an approach we’re likely to see more of, as states curtail or move to eliminate sex ed altogether. The Georgia Senate, for example, is considering a bill that allows school districts to drop sex education as a requirement and only enroll students whose parents specifically opt in.
“A dozen state or county agencies have parted ways with tens of thousands of dollars in federal grants meant to help monitor teenagers’ sexual behaviors and try to lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases,” according to U.S. News and World Report. “The withdrawals reflect a shift in many states that is further complicating and polarizing sex education in K-12 schools as some Republican-led legislatures more strictly regulate when and what students learn about their bodies.”
At school.
When and what students learn about their bodies at school.
From educators.
Educators who should be, ideally, armed with facts and data and evidence-based lessons delivered with professionalism and grace.
Unlike, say, TikTok.
Whatever word we’re cringing about our kids hearing from a qualified, certified educator, I promise we’ll cringe ourselves into the fetal position when we see the results of that word typed into Google.
And yet …
“Florida law requires schools to emphasize the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy,” Florida Department of Education communications director Sydney Booker told the Associated Press. “A state government should not be emphasizing or encouraging sexual activity among children or minors and is therefore right to emphasize abstinence.”
Except that emphasizing abstinence doesn’t work.
Study after study shows that age-appropriate comprehensive sex education — the kind that explains puberty and names anatomy and discusses contraception — decreases teen pregnancies, decreases sexually transmitted diseases and delays the age at which teens first engage in sexual activity.
“A review of the literature of the past three decades offers strong support for comprehensive sex education,” public health researchers Eva S. Goldfarb and Lisa D. Lieberman write in The Journal of Adolescent Health. “The findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of approaches that address a broad definition of sexual health and well-being and take positive, affirming, and inclusive approaches to human sexuality, across multiple grade levels.”
Which is probably why an overwhelming majority of Americans are in favor of sex education in schools, according to research also published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
“We’ve known for some time that abstinence-only programs are ineffective at reducing teen birth rates,” New York University professor Lawrence Wu said in a release about his landmark study that assessed the 20-year impact of federally funded sex ed programs. “This work shows that more wide-reaching sex education programs — those not limited to abstinence — are successful in lowering rates of teen births.”
They also help prevent young people from being exploited. The World Health Organization has this to say:
“By providing children and young people with adequate knowledge about their rights, and what is and is not acceptable behavior, sexuality education makes them less vulnerable to abuse. The UN’s international guidance calls for children between the age of 5 and 8 years to recognize bullying and violence, and understand that these are wrong. It calls for children aged 12-15 years to be made aware that sexual abuse, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and bullying are a violation of human rights and are never the victim’s fault. Finally, it calls for older adolescents — those aged 15-18 — to be taught that consent is critical for a positive sexual relationship with a partner. Through such an approach, sexuality education improves children’s and young people’s ability to react to abuse, to stop abuse and, finally, to find help when they need it.”
And yet…
University of North Florida public health professor Elisa Barr told the Orlando Sentinel that state officials are telling health education educators across Florida to strike contraception from their curriculum and teach abstinence only.
“As district officials contact her,” the Orlando Sentinel reports, “Barr has been keeping a list of words and phrases they’ve been told to remove from their reproductive health plans. They include abuse, consent, domestic violence, fluids, gender identity and LGBTQ information.”
I wish we would set young people up for success.
I wish we would look around at the world they live in — not the world we lived in at their age, not the world we imagined they would live in, not the world we wish they lived in — and decide to provide them with the resources and evidence and answers and grace and tenderness that will guide them toward healthy, whole, happy lives.
I wish instead of scaring them, we supported them.
I wish instead of withholding knowledge, we pointed them toward it.
I wish instead of doubting them, we trusted them — to be works in progress, to learn from their mistakes, to know that life is long (hopefully) and they’d be wise to show up for it as strong and healthy as possible.
I wish we could let that be our guiding light.
They deserve that from us.
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