What Should Sex Ed Look Like?
Contraceptives
Modern medicine has gifted us with numerous options when it comes to preventing pregnancy and STIs. Medically accurate sex ed covers all of these options, including their effectiveness and proper usage.
Sexually Transmitted Infections
In addition to prevention, medically accurate sex ed should cover all aspects of all individual sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including signs and symptoms, treatment options, and projected outcomes.
Abstinence
Medically accurate sex ed is all about giving adolescents ALL of the facts, and the fact of the matter is that abstinence is the only 100% effective method of preventing pregnancy and STIs.
Healthy Relationships C Consent
There's so much more to sex than sexual acts themselves, and communication, consent, and healthy relationships are necessary points of discussion in sex ed.
Pregnancy
While many abstinence-only sex ed programs teach scientific explanations of conception and fetal development, they omit discussing options for unplanned pregnancy, such as abortion and adoption.
LGBTQ+ Health
Young people need inclusive and culturally appropriate health care and sexual health education. Many young people are in the process of discovering their sexuality and/or gender in the time period that they take sex ed. LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education can help destigmatize and dispel harmful myths about the community and lead to better outcomes for STI prevention, healthy relationships, and overall mental health and well-being for LGBTQ+ youth.