This week the Guttmacher Institute released Are You In the Know? Contraception, Pregnancy, Teens, Abortion, a new set of online resources "designed to inform a broad range of audiences about contraception, pregnancy, abortion and teen health in a simple, compelling and fun format."
Are You in the Know? poses a series of questions -- and provides answers, with citation links to documented research -- about contraception, sexual activity, public funding for contraceptive services, emergency contraception, pregnancy, and abortion, and is effective at mythbusting many misconceptions about all of the above. The final section of the resource presents data specific to teens between the ages of 15-19, with questions and answers about sexual activity and marriage among teens, contraceptive use among teens, pregnancy and birth among teens, abortion among teens, sexually transmitted infections among teens, and teens' sources of information about sex.
Via Guttmacher.org:
The Institute has long worked to increase public awareness about sexual and reproductive health issues and counter misinformation with sound scientific evidence. Are you IN THE KNOW? builds on those efforts by covering topics such as the frequency of premarital sex in America, the incidence of abortion in the United States and globally, and the many positive effects of comprehensive sexuality education, in an accessible way.
Perhaps the most interesting section, for sex educators and others involved in sex education policy-making decisison, is the section on Sources of Information About Sex. Among the findings Guttmacher cites about teens ages 15-19 and their access to information about sex:
- American teens rank parents, peers and the media as important sources of sexual health information.[65]
- Only a handful of states require that the information presented in sex education classes be medically accurate and factual (14 states, as of October 2011).[66]
- Virtually all teens receive formal instruction about STIs, and more than eight in 10 receive instruction on abstinence. However, about one-third of teens do not receive any instruction about contraception.[67]
- About one in four teens (23% of females and 28% of males) receive abstinence education without receiving any formal instruction about birth control.[68]
- Comprehensive sex education, which includes information on both contraception and abstinence, often results in delayed sexual activity, lower frequency of sex and fewer sexual partners.[49] This type of sex education can also increase condom or contraceptive use and reduce risky sexual behaviors. Receiving comprehensive sex education does not lead teens to have sex earlier.
For more than four decades the Guttmacher Institute has been devoted to "Advancing sexual and reproductive health worldwide through research, policy analysis and public education." The Institute's publications include Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Guttmacher Policy Review.
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