Anchorage Daily News

Eighth-grade health class at my middle school was a joke. We spent about a month talking about basic anatomy, healthy diet, exercise and diseases and sicknesses like cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The rest of the semester was spent on "teen issues:" healthy relationships, alcohol, drugs but mostly sex.

We were lectured on the dangers of sex, the emotions, diseases and other problems it created. Horrific pictures of sexually transmitted diseases were projected onto the white board, with gristly explanations meant to scare us away from sex.

A very entertaining lecture by some guest speakers from the federally funded Let's Talk program told us that having sex -- or really any form of physical contact, because that leads to intercourse -- would make us unhappy and impure.

All these efforts to scare us away from sex were mostly laughed at because our class knew that nothing a teacher can say will make all teens abstain from sex. At the teacher's choice, another guest speaker from Planned Parenthood came and taught us about contraceptive options, as well as other facts about the subject.

This kind of presentation, however, receives no federal funding, and it was our teacher's choice for us to hear it, while every class heard from Let's Talk.

The fact that the federal government funds an abstinence-only education program is unrealistic and unfair to American teenagers.

"Abstinence is an important option for teenagers," says Clover Simon, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Anchorage. "But when you teach abstinence-only, you leave out that choice that some teenagers will make to be sexually active."

Preaching abstinence will never create a completely celibate teenage population.

We all have hormones and the ability to make our own decisions.

The federal program teaches that abstinence is the expected standard for high school students and failure to follow that standard will result in diseases, unplanned pregnancies and shattered emotions.

This scare tactic not only keeps students from knowing all the options, it gives them false information. Abstinence-only programs exaggerate and falsify facts about birth control, claiming that condoms have a high failure rate in preventing pregnancy and protecting from sexually transmitted diseases, when, in fact, proper condom use is highly effective protection.

Not teaching teens about all of their contraceptive options makes them more likely to engage in unsafe, unprotected sex.

Many adults argue that a comprehensive education program, which includes information about abstinence as well as birth control, is hypocritical, because if telling us not to do it and then telling us how to do it will make us run out and take off our clothes. It's not hypocritical -- it's smart.

Not informing teenagers about safe sex causes more problems when teens choose not to abstain.

Comprehensive education reduces the number of unplanned pregnancies and infections because kids know how to protect themselves, not because they are abstaining, as the abstinence-only program claims.

"The most important thing a teenager can do is advocate for themselves, because adults don't always know what's best," Simon said.

The freedom to make a personal, educated decision about sexual activity is a right all teenagers should have, and comprehensive education is the only way to make that a reality.

Chloe Miller is a sophomore at Service High School.

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