Lack of education about teenage pregnancy and its impacts on victims is one of the predisposing factors for the early pregnancies. Undoubtedly, lack of knowledge about the effects of teenage births leads to unhealthy sexual behaviors increasing the number of teen pregnancies. According to Lawlor and Shaw (2002), lack of basic knowledge about the reproductive systems and the various aspects of growth and development in adolescents can be attributed to increased teen births. Undoubtedly, the contemporary era of information globalization and effective communication makes information access more easily so teenagers should be guided to consume the right information and understand the impacts of teen births on their future. At the same time, Adolescent Health Care Services (AHCS) have failed in providing sufficient community and school-based education about teenage pregnancies. Consequently, basic counseling skills should be provided to help girls understand the risks of early pregnancies to their education and competitiveness.
How Current Policy is Insufficient to Address Lack of Education About Teenage Pregnancies
Sex education where teenagers are enlightened about early pregnancies is not currently legislated in Florida. Further, schools that fail to teach sex education only emphasize abstinence as a social standard. Consequently, since schools are not mandated to provide sex education, school districts decide on the type of sex education provided to students. Unfortunately, the lack of rigid policy frameworks leads to disparities in the quality of sex education received by students and can be attributed to the high number of teenage pregnancies in the state. At the same time, there is the “opt-out” policy where guardians can submit a written note requesting the removal of their children from any sexual or reproductive health education (Florida State Profile, n.d.). Clearly, the lack of a comprehensive curriculum about sex education and the definition of the scope teachers should cover in implementing the same is a major hindrance to minimize teen births. On the other hand, Bridges et al. (2002) explain that policy experts and public health officials have for long, highlighted the issue of abstinence till marriage sex education offered in Florida. The issues mainly revolve around the ineffectiveness of such abstinence programs, the moral effects of denying young students access to basic health information, and the political motivation behind the abstinence programs since most of them are sponsored by anti-abortion centers and Christian organizations.
Equally important, the ineffectiveness of health programs has also been highlighted by reputable healthcare organizations like the American Medical Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, among others and they recently addressed the Speaker of the Congress for reconsideration of the abstinence-only education policies. In Florida, the Healthy Teens Campaign comprised of the Florida Healthy Start Coalitions and 3 County Health Departments was also formed in 2017 to advocate legislative changes meant to ensure that teens acquire comprehensive sex education (Cawley, 2004). Generally, abstinence-only sex education has been blamed by stakeholders like public health advocates for its ineffectiveness in reducing teen pregnancy and birth rates in addition to sexually transmitted diseases.
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