WOMEN RIGHT
...strict and the students might potentially suffer from ignorance about sexual matters (believing that girls can become pregnant from oral sex, or not knowing what sexual body parts belong to each gender). There is very little evidence that teens who learn about sex in abstinence-only programs refrain from having sex longer than others. And the problem is that when they do have sex, they often fail to use contraception – this being a major problem in teens who take virginity pledges. On the flip side, students in a comprehensive sex-ed classroom do not become sexually active more often or earlier, and they use contraception more consistently. Current Status The United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy out of any country in the developed world. Experts say that restriction to sex-ed, contraception, and condoms fuel this rate, while in European countries (who have less than half of the amount of teen pregnancies) teens are given confidential access to contraceptives. 46% of those polled above believe that schools should teach that abstinence is best, but also discuss how and where to obtain contraceptives. This provides a good combination of both an abstinence-only and comprehensive sex-ed programs and is often referred to as an "abstinence-plus" program. Background Government funding of abstinence-only programs have existed for the past 20 years. The Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA) began in 1981 and was designed to prevent teen pregnancy by promoting self-discipline and chastity. The program received $11 million in federal funds that year and $19 million in 2000. In 1996 the federal government added a provision to the welfare-reform law to establish a federal entitlement program for abstinence-only sexual education. The program distributed $50 million per year for five years into the states. Since that time funding for these programs has increased nearly 3000%. The federal definition of an eligible abstinence-only education program is one that: has as its exclusive purpo...