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PSA: When it Comes to Sex Ed, Less Isn't More!

Education matters. That's why a group of us came together and decided to make a Public Service Announcement on the importance of comprehensive sex education in America's schools.
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PhD Candidate, Harvard University - www.rupertrussell.com

PhD Candidate, Harvard University - www.rupertrussell.com
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OK. Seriously now -- all man-boob jokes aside -- here are some numbers to think about this election season:

  • By age 19, seven out of ten teenagers will have had intercourse. And Eighty-two percent of teen pregnancies are unintended.

  • Between 1995 and 2002 the teenage pregnancy rate in the US steadily declined. Contraceptives accounted for 86% of it.

  • But in the mid-2000s, when abstinence-only sex education was introduced, teenage pregnancies began to rise again.

  • Now, one in four teenagers receive abstinence-only sex education without any instruction in contraception. In 1995, it was one in thirteen.

    • Education matters. That's why a group of us came together and decided to make a Public Service Announcement on the importance of comprehensive sex education in America's schools. We began our multi-platform campaign by writing Op-Eds about it. We got together with experts from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other groups well-versed in the forces aligned against informing kids about their own health to organize a workshop and round table at the University of Southern California. And we did what we do best: we made a short, snappy hard-hitting video with donations from the Internet and our committed cast and crew.

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