Infographic Category Health

AP Sex Ed

By | source:Cargocollective.com Jun 23rd, 2014

Okay, so maybe you’re thinking “Seriously, why am I looking at this?”. Maybe you might know where the clitoris is, but not everyone is so lucky. The state of sex education in the U.S. leaves a lot to be desired. That paired with the cultural stigma of being sexually naive, to be made to feel ashamed for asking questions, makes being prepared for a healthy sex life not so easy for everyone.

In the more fundamentalist and conservative parts of the country, teenagers are coerced into taking virginity pledges as a response to sex ed being mandated into the school’s curriculum. The truth is that teens who take these pledges are not only just as likely to contract an STI than those who don’t, but are also less likely to use contraceptives if and when they do become sexually active. This is obviously not helping to reduce the number (750,000 a year) of teenage pregnancies, more than 80% of which are unintended.

For every hour that passes, two young people will contract HIV on average. There are plenty more alarming statistics where these come from, but the point is that there are problems. Most of them can be solved at the root with proper and comprehensive sex education.