Planned Parenthood® Action Center

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than three million teen girls have a sexually transmitted infection (STI). That's at least one in four.  Even worse, some 750,000 teenagers in the United States will become pregnant this year. The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and our young people are paying the real price.

The best way to help teens prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections is to provide them with comprehensive, medically accurate, age-appropriate information. The vast majority of Americans — including parents — support comprehensive sex education. But only about five percent of American students receive sex education that covers all the information they need.