1 in 4 Teen Girls has an STD

That is 1 in 4 girls here in the US. One in four of the teen girls that we see everyday- hanging out at the mall or walking home from school. These girls have clearly be done a grave disservice. These results come from a new CDC study released today that looked at the "combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls." The numbers are staggering. Apparently, only roughly half the girls participating in the study acknowledged ever having sex. There is clearly some confusion about what sex is and how STDs are spread. In 2005 we see the first raise in teen birth rates in 15 years and now this study shows that we have group of confused and potentially unwell kids. What is to be done? Dare i point the finger at abstinence only education?

Abstinence Only!? You could even pay me...

Ok, I admit it, I am a "perfect-world" Libertarian. By that I mean if we lived in a perfect world where there was mutual human kindness instead of greed and abuse I would be a card carrying Libertarian. Being that it is not a perfect world I have buried these leanings deep inside. But recently my little internal libertarian has been chomping at the bit as I read about all the states that have said "Thank you, but no" to abstinence only federal funding. I like to fantasize that the refusals of these14 (possibly more) states was not so polite and involved a certain taboo finger waving in the air and a song that said "take your 50+ mil and shove it" but I digress. It is so exciting to see states stand up for their citizens and refuse federal bulling to support a program that just doesn't work.

And why doesn't the abstinence-only-until-marriage approach work? Besides the obvious that it fails to give teens medically appropriate information about birth control, STD prevention, and the option of abortion. After watching a recent PBS Frontline Documentary called Kids Online I have a little fledgling, not quite fully formed hypothesis as to why this approach is doomed to continual and repeated failure. One of the ideas brought up by the documentary is that this generation of kids grew up with the internet and are used to and expect immediate access. They never racked their brains all day trying to remember that actor's name that was in that movie.... or, the next lyric after "my girl wants to party all the time..." or who is buried in Grants Tomb? They can just look it up. They probably never had to listen expectantly to the sound of a dial-up modem while waiting for it to grant them access to the world wide web. These kids have had constant and immediate access to all the information they have ever wanted a suddenly we adults want to try and deny them access to information about the one topic they think about all the time. Sex. It just won't work.

Hats off to the 14 states so far that have turned their collective backs on $50 million.