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ninelilypetals t1_j2dkuec wrote

A few years ago I did a Masters paper on American sex education. Data out of Texas was shocking. Texas' 'preferred' lesson plan is abstinence-only. Texas holds the record for the most MULTIPLE teen pregnancies. Think of the short time window that a person is a teen and now cram two or more kids in that window while STILL not knowing where babies come from. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/21/texas-teenage-pregnancy-abortion/

Texas textbooks have to be approved by a school board (think conservative parents) and have historically downplayed the effectiveness of contraceptives in an attempt to discourage teens from having sex, but actually end up encouraging teens to not use them at all since they're 'not effective'. A change was passed in 2020 that went into effect this past August, so the ripple effects are yet to be seen. the article even quotes the influence of these boards - "Textbook companies look to Texas to set their standards for the rest of the country because we are such a large textbook purchaser,” Dr. Rayne said. “So it’s not just a Texas issue. We have to consider the way the Texas State Board of Education policy is impacting education on a national level.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/us/texas-sex-education.html

This ignorance also affects the STD rates among teens. For my paper found a study that stated 2/3 of students not only engaged in sex, but also regularly engaged in oral & anal. That paper worked off the premise that the teens were looking to avoid pregnancy but ended up not only contracting STDs at a high frequency but also contracting them multiple times (lesson never learned).

https://tfn.org/sex-ed/Factsheet_ByTheNumbers_LH_2019.pdf

https://www.keranews.org/2022-04-30/texas-got-a-sex-ed-update-but-students-and-educators-say-theres-still-a-lot-missing

An then the lovely cherry on top is that Texas ranks among the lowest per capita for insured citizens. So, not only have they been aggressively shutting down affordable locations such as Planned Parenthood, they also don't offer many affordable options leaving new mothers or infected individuals with hospital and treatment bills.

https://www.governing.com/now/texas-falls-behind-national-health-insurance-coverage-rate

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Texas is not a safe place to raise a child.

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BewBewsBoutique t1_j2dpmvh wrote

Texas also won’t publish their maternal mortality data… and teenagers are more likely to experience complications compared to fully developed adults.

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crazyjkass t1_j2dwyc8 wrote

They published it a few days ago. It's 20% higher than last year.

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FuckThisPostTruthEra t1_j2fct8u wrote

DAMN that’s a high increase. Is it because so many are antivaxxers?

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dangelem t1_j2egi4e wrote

Omg I cannot imagine being a teenager and not knowing where babies come from. Withholding that knowledge from someone should be considered abuse

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R3alTim3 t1_j2eldld wrote

Sex education classes in public school is not where students learn “where babies come from.”

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mdielmann t1_j2erh14 wrote

It shouldn't be, but do you think extremely conservative parents are giving them accurate, detailed, unbiased information at home?

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kinenbi t1_j2exck1 wrote

It is, actually.

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TypingGetUBanned t1_j2eyjdn wrote

I think his point was that students learn where babies come from earlier.

Or maybe he's just spewing nonsense.

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TheGreat_War_Machine t1_j2fo8gn wrote

Students learn it as early as middle school in biology. The study of meiosis will inherently lead to at least a passing mention of "oh yeah, the whole sperm and egg thing, that applies to us humans too."

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Brokenspokes68 t1_j2fc0ns wrote

None of this is surprising. It's important that we have data so thank you.

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TheGreat_War_Machine t1_j2foql5 wrote

Do the vast majority of teens/children under the age of consent that contract STDs get them from adults?

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heresyforfunnprofit t1_j2fglhy wrote

>Think of the short time window that a person is a teen and now cram two or more kids in that window while STILL not knowing where babies come from.

...do people really believe that modern teens don't know how babies are made?

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EmilyU1F984 t1_j2fra5g wrote

Nah. They know porn. But peer to peer education is massively lacking in getting across facts.

They really do not know how pregnancy happens. They believe all the old wives tales about preventing pregnancy.

These are the people doing coke douches cause some other idiot told them, instead of getting plan b

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Sanatori2050 t1_j2frgtb wrote

They may know where they come from, but a lot are told outright lies about how to make them or what actually will lead to their having them.

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