Nationwide resolution: Change sex ed

While people make their own personal resolutions for 2009, there is one resolution our country needs to make, and with Barack Obama beginning his presidency this year, this resolution could become a possibility. The United States needs to collectively overhaul sex education programs to assure that children are not only being taught abstinence, but safe sex methods as well.

A study released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluated data from 2006 and found that the nation's teen birth rate has risen for the first time in 15 years.

There are many possible factors to blame for this increase. The rising cost of birth control and its unavailability in some areas and the media's glamorization of pregnancy could be possible culprits. However, I'd like to place the bulk of the blame on education, particularly abstinence-only education.

Abstinence is the sure-fire method to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Everyone learns that at some point or another throughout their education, and it is obviously the safest method of birth control. However, an education program that only teaches abstinence is a mistake because it does not allow children to explore other options, such as safe sex.

Supporting a safe sex education program doesn't mean you're telling teens to go out and have as much safe sex as they want. Most teens are smarter than adults realize, and they need to be trusted to make the most well-informed decision they can make when it comes to sex. Ideally, if more teens know about safe sex practices, fewer teens will get pregnant and that national average of teen births will decrease over time.

The way Barack Obama can help fulfill this resolution is by his continued support for the Prevention First Act. The act plans to, among other things, increase funding for comprehensive sex education that teaches both abstinence and safe sex methods. Included in the act are also provisions to make contraception more accessible and to end insurance discrimination against contraceptive services.

When this issue is resolved and teens both know more about safe sex methods and have access to contraceptives if need be, hopefully statistics will reflect the change and the teen birth rate will decrease. I believe that teens can make smart decisions about sex; our country just needs to give them the chance to prove me right.