For years, it was thought that pregnancy and STDs were the biggest implications of the decision to engage in sexual activity outside of marriage. With that mindset, the scientific and medical communities, with support and funding from the federal government, set out to promote condoms and make contraceptives readily available to all. Even if the contraception didn’t work, the loosening of laws allowing abortion on-demand promised to make every child a wanted child.
Free love and “safe” sex was the message of a whole generation. It seemed as though everyone would be happy. People would finally be allowed to be uninhibited with their expressions of “love” and to act out on their hormonal urges.
One generation later, the world has more technology to make everything in life easier and faster so we can get what we want when we want it. Businesses competing for our money promote a “have it your way” motto. We have more than we’ve ever had materialistically speaking, and the so-called “freedom” in relationships has left nothing taboo.
And, we couldn’t be more depressed about it.
Depression and suicide are at an all-time high, divorce rates hover at around 50%, and child abuse is rampant. After a dramatic rise in teen pregnancy after the 1960s sexual revolution, teen pregnancy has gone down since the 1980s. But, STD rates have risen dramatically despite the increased condom use among teens during the same time period.
The fact is, we know more now about teens and sexual activity than we did one generation ago. With that knowledge, we must adjust our education system to keep up with the latest scientific and medical information. Sex is not just a physical act with potential physical consequences. It affects the whole person. In order to have healthier individuals and a better functioning society, we cannot ignore the science. Instead, we must teach our youth the healthiest way to live and empower them to abstain from risk-taking behaviors, including sexual activity.
The Ripple Effect: There are decisions that could change everything.
Depression and Suicide
- Sexually active teenage girls are more than three times more likely to be depressed than are girls who are not sexually active.
- Sexually active teenage boys are more than twice as likely to be depressed as boys who are not sexually active.
- A study done in 2005 found that depression follows risky behavior such as sexual activity. The study found that depression did not predict risky sexual behavior, but rather showed that even low levels of sexual experimentation increased the probability of depression.
- Sexually active teenage girls are nearly three times more likely to attempt suicide than are girls who are not sexually active.
- Sexually active teenage boys are eight times more likely to attempt suicide than are boys who are not sexually active.
- Children brought up in married parent families are less vulnerable to depression and suicide than children in non-intact families.
- The authors of one study advised all physicians to screen every teen with an STD for depression, because the study showed such a strong link between the two.
Educational Attainment
- Teens who abstain from sex during their high school years are 60% less likely to be expelled from school.
- Teens who abstain from sex during their high school years are 50% less likely to drop out of high school.
- Teens who abstain from sex during their high school years are almost twice as likely to graduate from college.
- Only 40% of teen mothers graduate from high school and only 2% complete college by age 30.
- 50% of teen moms, 30% of teen dads will drop out of High School.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
- One out of four sexually active teens has at least 1 STD.
- One of every five Americans has an incurable STD.
- 50% of sexually active teens contract an STD by the age of 25.
- In 2000, there were an estimated 18.9 million new cases of STDs among Americans. Approximately half of all new STD infections occur in teens and young adults (ages 15-24) every year.
- Only one in fifty adolescents in the 1960s was infected with a sexually transmitted disease. Today, one in four sexually active adolescents is infected.
- 20% of the GENERAL POPULATION ages 12 and older are infected with Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2.
- Almost half of all girls are likely to become infected with an STD during their first sexual experience.
- The number of people with asymptomatic STDs (those that have no outward signs) probably exceeds those whose diseases have been diagnosed.
- A comprehensive study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health concluded that latex condoms could reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS and gonorrhea in males by approximately 85%, but there was not enough evidence to determine that they were effective in reducing the risk of most other sexually transmitted diseases.
- STDs can cause lifelong health complications. 10-20% of women with gonorrhea and Chlamydia develop pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can lead to lifelong complications, such as infertility and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancies.
- Many sexually transmitted diseases can cause adverse pregnancy outcomes, including, but not limited to, miscarriages, stillbirths, intrauterine growth restriction, and mother-to-infant infections.
- Estimates indicate that the economic burden of the nine million new cases of STDs that occurred among 15-24 year-olds in 2000 was $6.6 billion (in year 2000 dollars). A more recent figure (2005) states that the yearly cost for Chlamydia alone (the number one bacterial disease) and its consequences is $2.4 billion.
Teen Pregnancy
- 1 out of 5 sexually active teens relying on contraceptives experience a pregnancy within two years.
- 1 in 3 young women become pregnant by the age of 20.
- 20% of teens younger than 18 using condoms get pregnant within one year.
- Compared with children born to mothers who delay childbearing until age 21 or older, children of teen mothers are more likely to grow up in homes that are not emotionally supportive or cognitively stimulating, to suffer from abuse and neglect, to repeat a grade in school, and to drop out of high school.
- Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $9 billion each year.
Single Parent Homes
- Children with married parents are twice as likely to be in good health as children living with single or co-habiting parents.
- Eight out of ten teen fathers do not marry the mothers of their first children.
- Boys and girls without involved fathers are:
-Twice as likely to drop out of high school.
-Two to three times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.
-Twice as likely to end up in jail.
-Twice as likely to abuse alcohol or drugs.
- Living in a single-parent home approximately doubles the risk that a child will become a high school dropout.
- Children whose parents never marry begin sex earlier, get pregnant out of wedlock more often and more frequently become a teen parent.
Sexual Violence
- Nearly one in three sexually active adolescent girls in ninth to twelfth grade (31.5 percent) report ever experiencing physical or sexual violence from dating partners.
Welfare and Child Poverty
- Over three-fifths of teen mothers live in poverty at the time of their child’s birth, and over four-fifths eventually live below poverty.
- Over three quarters of unmarried teen mothers must rely on welfare within the first five years of their child's birth.
- Nearly 80% of unwed teen mothers eventually receive welfare.
- Children from intact families are less likely to be poor than children whose parents are divorced, co-habiting or never married.
Divorce
- Those who were not virgins when they married are more likely to divorce than those who remained abstinent until marriage.
- The pattern of changing sex partners seems to damage a person’s ability to bond in a committed relationship.
Child abuse
- Children in single-parent families are more likely to become a victim of domestic violence.
Drug and Alcohol Abuse
- Sexually active teens are much more likely to take drugs and drink alcohol.
Incarceration
- Sons born to adolescent mothers are 2.2 times more likely to be incarcerated.
Sources
- Pediatrics, American Journal of Preventative Medicine, The Case for Marriage by Maggie Gallagher, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Carolina Population Center (UNC), The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, The Robin Hood Foundation, Kaiser Family Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Social Health Association, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, New England Journal of Medicine, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Journal of the American Medical Association, Department of Health and Human Services, Unprotected by Miriam Grossman M.D., Family Planning Perspectives, Hooked by Joe McIlhaney M.D. and Freda McKissic-Bush M.D., Adolescent and Family Health
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