Sex education and access to contraception tend to increase sexual activity. In programs that provide information about both contraception and abstinence, evaluators have found no increase in sexual activity. Indeed, some programs that include information on contraception were found to delay initiation of sexual activity. A review of 47 diverse programs found that sex education not only tended to delay the onset of sexual activity, but it also appeared to reduce the number of sexual partners, the number of unplanned pregnancies, and the rates of sexually transmitted diseases. Teenagers don't care about what parents think or say.
Young people rank parents as the preferred source of information about sex and health.
They also rank parents as the most trusted source, and 1 out of 2 teenagers say that they trust their parents most for reliable and complete information about birth control. Only 1 in 10 say that they trust a friend most. When asked about the reasons why teenage girls have babies, about 3 out of 4 teenagers cited a lack of communication between a girl and her parents. The high incidence of teen births is a new development in America. The rate of teen births in the United States has been high for a long time.