In an ideal world, every child would be taught about “the birds and the bees” from loving, caring parents, and then the child would use that knowledge appropriately. Unfortunately, that is not the reality we face in South Carolina.
The youth and women of South Carolina are in need of access to contraception and information. For those who are living in rural communities or are having financial trouble in these tough economic times, receiving quality contraceptive services can be extremely difficult. In South Carolina, in order to obtain contraceptive services without the consent of a parent or guardian, a minor must be at least 16 years old, married, or considered a “mature minor.”
Due in parts to these and other tough restrictions, most teenagers choose to simply have unprotected sex. According to a recent study, “the proportion of high school girls who reported using no method of birth control the last time they had sex increased from 11.6% in 2003 to 13.7% in 2005.”
Not all children come from a traditional family. These children, who are in the most need for quality education, are the ones that typically fall through the cracks. That is why compulsory comprehensive sex education and access to contraception should be a vital part of every school’s curriculum.
Tags: Comprehensive Sex Ed, Reproductive Health, Sexual Health, Traci Young Cooper, TTWomen, Youth
Thank you, Traci, for bringing attention to those students who come from different backgrounds and families. These kids are the ones who need compulsory sex ed more than anyone, and I only hope that our education system will finally allow educators to teach a complete health curriculum.
“Everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.”
– Bristol Palin
Let’s arm our young people with the information they need to protect themselves and make healthy decisions. This message of age appropriate comprehensive sex education needs to be given where the kids are, and they are in SCHOOLS.
Listen up people, this is not a liberal or conservative issues, it’s a community issue. Legislators need to hear from us, and in a modern demonstration we are going to rally people -ONLINE- please take a minute to join SC first ever Virtual March, on the statehouse by going to tellthemsc.org.
Let work together and given our young people the opportunity to live healthy lives!
Not providing factual, comprehensive sex education is tantamount to child neglect.
I love Kelly’s attribution to Bristol Palin’s quote. There is so much misinformation out there these days that sex is still as taboo as it was in this state. Imagine coming from Washington, D.C, where the norm is to teach children not only what a condom was but how to put it on. And now all we are doing in this state is telling them, with religious overtones, that sex is bad because of a b and c. Well. Thats a lie. Sex is good. When done responsibly. But how can we do it responsibly if the previous generation won’t mention the word. HELLO! we all know you have sex otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Yep. We are a sexually transmitted item… the stork didn’t drop us. SO TELL US HOW WE GOT HERE.