750,000 pregnancies in the US belonged to teens between the age of 15 and 19 in 2006. Although not completely. Out of the 750,000 pregnancies, 59% or 442500 were live births, 14% were miscarriages or 105,000 and 27% or 202,500 were aborted. Sex education will teach teens how to use contraceptives and the prevention of unplanned parenthood other serious issues are the results of unprotected sex is STDS.

19 million cases of STD are reported each year, half of which are 15-24. Every eight seconds, one teen is infected with one form of STD, two of them are before the age of 25. Knowledge is the key to prevention, sex education needs to be taken seriously in schools, if teens and young adults are aware of the repercussions of sex, they would take sex more seriously and become more aware of the ways to prevent pregnancy and STDs. Knowledge is something the society of today can not live with out, the risks of STDs. The pill is a common form of pregnancy prevention, but 40% of older teens did not know that the oral contraceptives do not protect against HIV or STDs. All STDs are contracted the same way, through penetration of the vagina, anus or though oral sex, these STDs include, HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis, Genital herpes and Syphilis and Trichinosis.

Chlamydia is the most common STD that is diagnosed. There are no symptoms of this bacterial infection. Yet it will destroy a woman’s ability to have children if not treated, and is left to run its own course can cause damage to the fallopian tube, cervix, and uterus. Chlamydia not only affects the mother and father but can be passed to the child during birth. In the US 100,000 women were diagnosed with Chlamydia while pregnant. If left untreated it can lead to early infant pneumonia and pink eye in newborn children.

Gonorrhea has little or no symptoms in women but can have deadly results on an infant born to a mother who has this bacterial disease. Gonorrhea can cause a deadly infection of the blood, blindness and joint disease in infants. Untreated Gonorrhea can spread to joints, and blood that may lead to death, and an easier contraction of HIV. Syphilis is the STD whose symptoms are common and not easily distinguishable from other diseases. Syphilis starts off as a painless sore will go away but needs to be treated immediately, if not then a rash could appear on the body, it is red or brown and have a rough texture to it. The rash is also accompanied by hair loss, fever, headaches and weight loss along with other symptoms. The final stage of Syphilis takes years to appear, but leads to internal organ damage, blindness and numbness and even death. The toll on a baby born with Syphilis is seizures. All children that remain untreated is death. These terrible diseases and deaths could have been prevented if these individuals had the knowledge of a sexual education class in high school. All of this information that’s been given has been researched on my own time.


In my school our health super-size me, which takes up one class period, the rest of the year is physical education. My school used to have an actual sexual education class but was cut in 2008 the year before the class of 2012 entered the high school. The 2 hours of health that is give on nutrition is not taken seriously by the students, yet nothing is being done to change this, there is at least one pregnancy every year at my school, and more talk about sex in the hallways. My friends and classmates are part of the statistics of STDs, unplanned parenthood, and adoption. The generations of today deserve the better then what the lack of education has given them; these effects are not only going to effect our generation but those of these unplanned pregnancies, our families and friends.