If there is a shame here, it\u2019s a national shame \u201d\u201d a failure of our puritanical society to accept and deal with the facts. Teenagers have sex. How often and how safely depends on how much knowledge and support they have. Crossing our fingers that they won\u2019t cross the line is not an intelligent strategy.<\/p>\n
To wit, our ridiculous experiment in abstinence-only education seems to be winding down with a study finding that it didn\u2019t work. States are opting out of it. Parents don\u2019t like it either. According to a 2004 survey sponsored by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School of Government, 65 percent of parents of high school students said that federal money \u201cshould be used to fund more comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
We need to take some bold steps beyond the borders of our moralizing and discomfort and create a sex education infrastructure that actually acknowledges reality and protects our children from unwanted pregnancies, or worse<\/p>\n