Why Sex Education Is So Bad In The U.S.

CNBC
21 Dec 202113:46

Summary

TLDRThe transcript discusses the state of sex education in the U.S., highlighting the economic and public health implications of inadequate sexual education. It outlines the debate between abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education, emphasizing the importance of providing accurate information to young people. The economic burden of unintended pregnancies and STIs is underscored, with calls for improved sex education policies and programs that foster personal agency and critical thinking skills among youth.

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Transcripts

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sex ed in the u.s is kind of a joke take

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for example this clip from tina fey's

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mean girls don't have sex

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because you will get pregnant and die

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with the majority of u.s students

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reporting they've had sex before

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graduating high school the type of sex

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ed they receive is a big deal for

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themselves personally and for the

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economy direct medical cost of

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unintended pregnancy in the united

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states totaled at least 5.5 billion

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dollars in 2018 a rise from the 2011

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estimate of 4.6 billion dollars but

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there's been a debate spanning decades

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about what information to include in the

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curriculum we believe that sex education

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is an economic justice issue for the

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ability of giving young people the

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determination over their own decision

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making as it relates to families and

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sexual activity and behavior

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as a society becomes more diverse it's

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ever more difficult to have any sort of

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consensus on a subject like sex and

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sexuality because it's so deeply

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connected to our ideas about ourselves

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as human beings

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so the politics of this are complicated

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most young people are getting something

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they're just not getting very much sex

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education there is no national or

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federal mandate around sex education and

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so what kids are taught in schools

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varies by

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state by county even by school only in

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sex ed is the sex ed teacher and joint

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actually change how the kids behave out

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of school and this may be an impossible

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burden so what does sex education mean

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for the economy and what happens when

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some students are left behind

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sex education didn't become a part of

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the public school system until the early

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20th century why do babies have fathers

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there was a panic in american cities

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about sexually transmitted diseases

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middle and upper middle class white men

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were patronizing prostitutes which has

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always been a conduit for stds infected

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prostitutes are being legally removed

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for cure and rehabilitation and we're

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going home and infecting their wives

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there was a rise in reported cases of

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venereal disease among young people

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during the first world war

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as more and more soldiers got in effect

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with stds that the federal government

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started to sponsor efforts at sex ed

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preventing the spread of sexually

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transmitted infections is one common

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goal of sex ed another is preventing

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unintended pregnancies especially among

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teenagers

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there are two general approaches to

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adolescent sex education one is

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abstinence only until marriage which is

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also called sexual risk avoidance this

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curriculum teaches that abstaining from

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sex is the expected behavior for

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teenagers and frequently excludes

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information about contraception options

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and other safe sex practices my name is

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marianne mozak and i'm the president and

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ceo of a national nonprofit called

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ascend and we support the sexual risk

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avoidance education when you say the

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word abstinence only it seems that it

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would be inferring that abstinence is

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the only thing we talk about in a sexual

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risk avoidance program it's way more

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than that it's very holistic and talks

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about lots of broader topics that impact

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a person's life the second curriculum is

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called comprehensive sex education which

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provides students with information about

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abstinence as well as safer sex

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practices such as contraception use and

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ways to reduce risk for contracting an

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sti

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these programs may also include

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discussions of miscarriages abortion

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sexual orientation and gender identity

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those are the extremes most programs

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fall someplace in the middle the middle

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ground curriculum is usually called

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abstinence plus these programs typically

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stress abstinence as the best way to

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prevent pregnancy and sti transmission

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while also including information about

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contraception and condom use i think we

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all agree that very young adolescents

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ought not to be engaging in behaviors

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that could get them pregnant or cause

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them to have an std

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i think that really the divide is on how

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do you get there do you get there by

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withholding critical information or do

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you get there by providing the

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information and developing the skills

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that young people are going to need to

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stay out of risky situations the

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government doesn't set any requirements

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for sexual health education policy

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unless a program is receiving federal

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funding that means each state sets its

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own policies which leads to inconsistent

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curricula across the country i did a

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study that showed that even among

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republicans there was support for

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teaching practically every topic in sex

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education when we've had controversy in

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this country over sex education the

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truth is it has really been caused by a

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very small vocal minority and i think

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that's created the perception that there

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is more debate and dissent about sex

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education than there actually is in

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communities across the country despite

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this narrowing of public opinion sex

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education policy is still inconsistent

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across the u.s with some states not

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requiring schools to teach any sex

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education at all 32 states and

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washington dc require students receive

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some kind of sex education according to

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the sex ed advocacy group secas 33

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states require the curricula to

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emphasize abstinence whenever sex or hiv

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education is taught and 16 states

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require instruction on contraception

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only 19 states require that lesson plans

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be medically accurate what we discovered

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was that most kids can get access to

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that basic information about you know

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condoms and

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and so forth from a variety of sources i

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mean you know you see it on tv mtv shows

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like 16 and pregnant and teen mom

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potentially contributed to lower teen

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birth rates according to a 2014 study

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from the national bureau of economic

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research because i'm pregnant

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the researchers concluded that these

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shows led to a 5.7 reduction in team

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births between 2009 and 2010.

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sex education has some big public health

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goals and if they aren't achieved they

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can have serious economic consequences

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teenagers who unintentionally become

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pregnant tend to receive less education

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and are less likely to have a spouse

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with whom they can share in the

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financial support of raising a child

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society as a whole loses big time

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because we lose the productivity babies

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born to teens are much more susceptible

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to being low birth weight and having

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other health conditions that bear down

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on the health care system raise our

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health care costs a lot of those costs

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get funded through public dollars when

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it comes to teen pregnancy it is a

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little bit challenging to figure out

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economic impacts because all too often

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the young people who experience teen

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pregnancy are already very low income so

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the fact that they remain low income may

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be more the result of the fact that it's

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really hard to change economic quintiles

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in this country

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versus really being associated with

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being an early parent the high cost of

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teen pregnancy may have pushed

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mississippi into legislating sex

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education requirements in 2009 teen

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births in mississippi cost taxpayers

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nearly 155 million dollars according to

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a report from the mississippi economic

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policy center the report attributes

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these costs to lower wages among teen

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parents higher incarceration rates for

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the children of teen parents and

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increased foster care costs in 2011

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mississippi governor haley barbour

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signed a law that required all school

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districts to adopt a sex education

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curriculum family planning allows

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parents to control the timing of when

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they have children how many children

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they have which allows them to

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be able to prioritize how to pursue

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their education and career there have

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been a number of studies on birth

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control itself which shows that any one

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dollar investment in family planning

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ends up saving four to seven dollars in

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terms of preventing unintended pregnancy

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on the other end that certainly saves

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money in terms of the economy absolutely

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but sexual delay is so important three

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out of five children who are living in

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poverty live in families that are headed

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by unwed mothers and we know the impact

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of single parents in terms of the

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benefits the entitlement programs that

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we have in place for them and that that

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all impacts the economy access to birth

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control options such as the pill is

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correlated with higher earnings

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potential for women many women with

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access to the pill have lower wages in

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their 20s as they pursue more education

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but then their income grows more rapidly

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in their 30s and 40s compared to women

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who did not have access to the pill

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preventing the spread of sexually

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transmitted infections also has economic

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impact the cdc estimates that in 2018

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about one in five people in the u.s had

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an sti with half of new sti cases among

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people aged 15 to 24.

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the cdc estimates stis cost the us

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nearly 16 billion dollars in healthcare

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costs alone

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care for 15 to 24 year olds made up an

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estimated 26 of that total cost testing

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and trading for sexually transmitted

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infections does incur a huge cost

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through

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both public insurance private insurance

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individual costs and of course the

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lifelong costs of some of the viral stds

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for a particular individual who may be

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having to go to the doctor more

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buy more treatments throughout their

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life it can be a really high cost

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there is no federal policy in the united

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states that governs sex education

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rather the way that the federal

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government is involved in sex education

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is by appropriating limited funding for

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certain kinds of approaches the us

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government began funding abstinence-only

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programs in the 1980s during the reagan

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administration as fear of hiv and aids

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spread throughout the country frequently

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these programs were faith-based the

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amount of money the federal government

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puts into sex education really expanded

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as part of welfare reform in 1996 and

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since then there has been some funding a

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couple hundred million dollars that has

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really gone back and forth the funding

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for abstinence-only education has varied

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with the electoral cycle so during the

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obama era it went down during the trump

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era it went back up in 2015 the federal

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government provided about 55 million

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dollars in 2021 that number was up to

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110 million the obama administration was

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the first to try to establish some

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evidence-based metrics to federal

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funding they also created the teen

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pregnancy prevention program in order to

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strengthen federal funding for more

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medically accurate evidence-based

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programs but they did not discontinue

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the sexual risk avoidance programs the

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teen pregnancy prevention program which

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was established in 2010 is a national

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evidence-based grant program to develop

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and evaluate new approaches to prevent

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unintended pregnancies and stis among

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adolescents the program has been funded

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to the tune of about 100 million dollars

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each year through fiscal year 2021. in

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july 2021 the house passed a bill that

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would allocate 130 million dollars to

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the program that would last through

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september 2022. as of december 2021 that

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bill has not passed the senate the

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federal government also provides funds

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through the competitive personal

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responsibility education program this

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funding stream supports a variety of

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evidence-based programs that focus on

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young people ages 10 to 19 who are

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homeless in or aging out of foster care

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living with hiv or aids

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victims of human trafficking or living

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in areas with high adolescent birth

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rates the program's goals are to prevent

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pregnancy and stis by emphasizing

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abstinence and contraception it

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typically receives roughly 70 to 75

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million dollars in funding per year

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[Music]

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both abstinence-only and comprehensive

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sex ed proponents claim victory in that

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the teen birth rate in the u.s has

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fallen to a new low every year since

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2009.

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the american approach has always

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emphasized collectivity after all that's

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what a rate is right an std rate or a

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pregnancy rate that's a collective

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measure a collective outcome and the

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european approach has been much more

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focused on the individual helping each

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individual develop what the sex

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educators call a healthy sexual life now

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that's really difficult in a diverse

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society because healthy is an extremely

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loaded and evaluated term and what's

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healthy to one set of individuals or

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communities may not be healthy to

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another i hope to see in the world is

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really universal comprehensive sex

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education being offered we are working

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with the federal government

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and members of congress to advance new

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legislation the real education and

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access for healthy youth act that speaks

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directly to those needs i also believe

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that it means that we are doing the

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right thing by talking about sex

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education from this bigger

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goal perspective than just preventing

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teenage pregnancy it's really important

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that we reinforce those good habits that

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the teens are making right now by

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helping them with refusal skills

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self-regulation skills helping them with

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goal setting putting an eye on their

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future personal agency is extremely

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important and we're only there to

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provide the medical facts and to also

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begin to instill some critical thinking

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Related Tags
Sex EducationEconomic ImpactPublic HealthAbstinence TeachingComprehensive ApproachTeen PregnancySTD PreventionPolicy DebatesHealthcare CostsYouth Development