Contra Costa Times: Alarming STD Rates - 3/17/08

Contra Costa Times

WHAT DOES IT SAY about a culture when one of every four girls between the ages of 14 and 19 has a sexually transmitted disease?
What does it say about that culture's failure to teach girls self-respect and self-esteem that makes them value themselves as something other than sexual objects?
That is what all Americans -- not just those with teen daughters -- should be asking in the wake of the shocking study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC researchers found that out of a test sample of 800 girls, 25 percent tested positive for STDs. We're talking about trichomoniasis, genital herpes, chlamydia or the human papillomavirus.
One of two African-American teens had an STD, compared with 20 percent of whites and Latinos, respectively.
Proponents of expanding sex education in public schools say the CDC findings offer proof that we need to make condoms and birth control pills more readily available for teen girls in public schools.
Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of American, proclaimed, "The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price."
True, despite the Bush administration's suggestions to the contrary, abstinence-only programs don't work.
"Just say no" has little chance against a teen's raging hormones. We need real sex education classes in schools.
However, we also need to do more to discourage our girls, and boys, from having sex when they're not mature enough to take proper precautions or handle the consequences.
How do we get through to teens when everything in our culture encourages them to engage in dangerous, high-risk behavior?
We believe public health officials around the country must launch an aggressive public advertising campaign warning of the risk of STDs -- just as there has been a national effort to crack down on teen smoking.
Many teens are ignorant about the risks. Girls and boys need to be told, for instance, that they can become infected through oral sex as well as intercourse.
It is only through a steady bombardment of messages -- to counter the constant barrage of a sex-soaked culture -- that we can begin to change teen attitudes.
Many parents are in denial. No one wants to believe that their child has a venereal disease. These parents need to get a grip.
Nearly 3 million teen girls across the nation are believed to be carrying STDs, and many don't even know it.
Some STDs can damage a woman's reproductive organs and even cause cervical cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Parents must have candid conversations with their children and make sure they have access to sex education in school. Their lives may depend on it.