Teen STDs at Shocking Levels

Half of all sexually active youth can expect to catch
a sexually transmitted disease, according to study.

A shocking new report on the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to young people shows that half of all sexually active young people can expect to be infected by the age of 25. Sexually active teens have the highest rates of STDs of any age group, according to the study, which was produced by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina. Treatment costs to the over 9 million infected are estimated at $6.5 billion.

Dr. Tom Coburn, a former congressman, has been warning about this epidemic for years. "We've had a message to our young people that there are no consequences to multiple sexual partners," he said. "The fact is that this data is going to continue to show and has shown for years that there are large consequences." What's worse, Coburn added, is that the government could have prevented the crisis by stressing the importance of abstinence instead of peddling the condoms-first, "safe-sex" message.

Groups like True Love Waits have been trying for over 10 years to get the message out to young people about abstinence. "(True Love Waits is a grass-roots movement of) students who are saying that these kind of numbers and this kind of behavior don't have to happen, that students can be sexually abstinent," spokesman Jimmy Hester said. He added that True Love Waits helps provide the platform that abstinence is a very real option, even for those who have been sexually active.

More than 9 million of the new infections in 2000 affected those 15 to 24. The rise of STDs contrasts the steady decline in teen birth and pregnancy rates in the 1990s, signaling that while birth-control products are being used, they do not offer protection against STDs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

• To learn more about abstinence and STDs, we recommend the Focus on Social Issues "Sexual Purity" Web site. http://www.family.org/cforum/fosi/purity/

• Also we suggest the Pure Revolution Adult Resource Web site.
  http://www.purerevolution.com/adult/

• Accurate medical information on STDs is available from The Medical Institute Sexual Health Web site. http://www.medinstitute.org/medical/index.htm

• And the national Abstinence Clearinghouse is perhaps the single best resource for information about abstinence education. http://www.abstinence.net/

(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)

Copyright (c) 2004, Focus on the Family.