North Carolina Sex Education Debate Becoming More Polarizing, News Observer Reports

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 08 Sep 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The Raleigh News & Observer on Wednesday examined the sex education debate in North Carolina. According to the News & Observer, debate on the issue has become more "polarizing" this week after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, announced that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

Abstinence-only education programs were introduced to schools in North Carolina in 1996. According to the state Division of Health Statistics, the teen pregnancy rate has leveled off in recent years after it began declining in 1990. According to the News & Observer, state surveys show that between 60% and 70% of high school seniors in North Carolina have had intercourse and that about 20,000 teenage girls became pregnant annually. In the past five years, sexually transmitted infection rates for people ages 15 to 19 have increased.

Mark Creech -- executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, who supports abstinence-only education --said, "You don't make things better by lowering the standard," adding that sex outside marriage should be discouraged. Melissa Reed, vice president for public policy of Planned Parenthood Health Systems in Raleigh, said more needs to be done "to give our young people life-saving information that they can use throughout their adult life."

A state public health task force and other groups opposing abstinence-only programs advocated for more detailed information about contraception in sex education courses. A bill was introduced earlier this year in the state Legislature that would have allowed public school boards to add topics to sex education programs, such as contraception, without public hearings. The legislation has "made headway and will likely re-emerge" in January 2009 when legislators return, the News & Observer reports (Goldsmith, Raleigh News & Observer, 9/4).

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