Gail Collins on Texas and Abstinence
Author and New York Times columnist Gail Collins lays out Texas' approach to sex education and teen pregnancy prevention in an excerpt from her new book, As Texas Goes.
Collins points out that sex education in Texas schools is almost all abstinence-only, with many school districts using curricula that teach misinformation about sex and about condoms. The article highlights the findings of the 2009 report, Just Say Don't KNOW, which found that 94% of Texas school districts offer abstinence-only or no sex education.
Texas also refuses to accept funding for evidence-based abstinence-plus education (i.e., Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP funding).
As Collins points out, "The biggest problem with trying to frighten kids, or shame them, into not having sex is that it doesn't work." By the time Texas teens are high school seniors, nearly 7 in 10 have had sex.
She highlights the recent huge (two-thirds) budget cut to the family planning program that provides preventive care and contraception, but not abortion, to low-income Texans. She also points out that Texas is so big, that our teen pregnancy rates affect the whole country.
