OPINION: Sex ed is more important now than ever

Omaha – For students at Central High School in Omaha, Nebraska, it’s commonplace to graduate without ever stepping foot into a sex education class. It seems like a no-brainer: skip a “useless” class and free up space for an elective or a more rigorous International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement class. Who wouldn’t want to skip out on the awkward sex talks and banana condom demonstrations with their health teacher?

But there’s a problem with this mindset. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, especially in states like Nebraska that may be looking to ban abortion, sex ed is more important than ever. 

Sex ed and/or HIV/AIDS prevention programs are required, in some form, in 39 states plus DC in the US. But, only 17 of these states require sex ed to be “medically accurate,” according to the Guttmacher Institute.

That term is as vague as it sounds. It doesn’t specify the content of the course, except for the fact that the educational material must be supported by “the weight of research conducted in compliance with accepted scientific methods,” according to a sample piece of legislation from the Public Leadership Institute.

Five of the ten states with the highest teen pregnancy rates don’t mandate any sex ed, as reported by World Population Review. All of them are poised to ban or limit abortion in some capacity.

That means to me one thing: the U.S. needs comprehensive sex education for all students, post-Roe, to limit teenage pregnancy. 

The US is notoriously bad at sex ed. A study conducted in PLOS ONE, a medical journal, reported that out of the 35 most developed nations, the US ranks first in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. But, a comprehensive, community-based and mandatory sex ed curriculum nationwide will be more effective at preventing teen pregnancy and STIs, especially for African American and Hispanic individuals in their teenage years, as stated in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a CDC publication. 

SIECUS, a sex ed advocacy group, reports that 18 states don’t mandate sex ed. Nebraska, where I live, is one of them. While my school does offer a sex ed curriculum, students have the option  to opt out of it entirely. Because I wanted to take an elective that I missed when we went remote due to the pandemic, I was one of the students who opted out of sex ed.

But learning how to be sexually literate is a basic component of being a young adult in today’s world. I should not have been able to opt out of sex ed as easily as I was able to; it is a class that holds equal importance to any other class a student takes during high school. But, unlike other class, sex ed remains separate because the consequences of a bad sex ed system can be detrimental, and sometimes, permanent. 

The structure and premise of high school, as a whole, is to prepare young adults for the real world. There is almost nothing more “real-world” than becoming sexually literate, especially in a time where the reproductive rights of those with uteruses have been taken away. 

Denying abortions to people who need them creates a larger risk of experiencing poverty and job loss, possibly increases levels of abuse and raises rates of single parenthood, according to a study at the University of California San Francisco. An article published in American Journal of Public Health goes as far as saying that “Laws that restrict access to abortion may result in worsened economic outcomes for women.” Abortion is a valuable family planning method. Sex ed is important and it will always remain important because family planning is always relevant. 

The main opponents to a complete and comprehensive sex ed curriculum in the United States are generally those in favor of the overturning of Roe: the religious right.

Both sex ed and abortion have been marker issues for the religious right for over 60 years, according to People for the American Way and The Guardian. It is ironic that the religious right chooses to make these contradictory stances their primary issues. If conservatives wanted to limit teen pregnancy, and therefore abortions, they would teach comprehensive sex ed.

It has been proven many times that comprehensive sex ed is better at preventing teen pregnancy than abstinence-only programs or situations where sex ed isn’t mandated. A Washington University study found that teens who received comprehensive sex ed were 60 percent less likely to get pregnant or impregnate someone than teens who received no sex ed and 30 percent less likely than their peers who received abstinence-only sex ed. 

The right to abortion and a comprehensive sex ed shouldn’t be a trade-off; but to support abortion bans and neglect comprehensive and accessible sex ed is completely contradictory. 

Some states have excellent templates for comprehensive sex ed. California, Vermont, and other blue states such as Maine, Illinois, Oregon and Washington all offer mandated sex ed, HIV/STI training, comprehensive healthy relationship training and contraceptive coverage. Some of these states still fall short; some are still neutral toward LGBTQ+ people, and not as inclusive as they ought to be. But it is a start.

It is impossible to create a “one size fits all” program for the whole country. But all factors point towards the need for every single state to adopt a comprehensive sex ed program.

We need to do this for our youth. And for the future of our nation.