Perhaps this shouldn’t be so surprising considering the most recent data out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that births to teen girls ages 15 to 19 years increased by 3 percent. This is the first increase noted after the previous 14 years of decline.

Even more astonishing is the general lack of knowledge about sexuality and reproductive health I have encountered in my patients. CDC also has released new data in the last year about the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections among adolescents, especially adolescent girls.

It is now estimated that one in four girls ages 14 to 19 years has at least one STI. These recent findings highlight concerns about abstinence-only education programs and really demand a minimum standard for comprehensive sex education in our schools, as current legislation proposes.

I do not deny that abstinence is a healthy choice for adolescents. It remains the most effective method to prevent unintended pregnancies and STIs and should be included in any sexual education curriculum. However, abstinence-only programs have not been shown to change adolescent sexual behaviors according to extensive data reviews.

These programs are not only ineffective, but might cause harm by providing inadequate and inaccurate information, resulting in failure to use safer sex practices once intercourse is initiated. Children and adolescents need accurate and comprehensive education about sexuality to practice healthy sexual behaviors as adults, but also to avoid early, exploitative or risky sexual activity that might lead to health and social problems, such as unintended pregnancy and STIs, including HIV infection and AIDS.

Research shows that comprehensive sexuality education is an effective strategy for helping young people delay the initiation of sexual intercourse and does not hasten the onset or frequency of sexual intercourse nor increase the number of sexual partners teens have.

It is my job to ensure the health and well-being of children. However, as an adolescent medicine provider, by the time a teenager comes to see me in the office, it often is too late.

My patients frequently make poor choices, due to lack of knowledge or misinformation. I recently saw a girl in the office named “Ariel.” She is a 15-year-old from the Harrisburg area who came in with her mother thinking she was pregnant. Indeed, her pregnancy test was positive. Ariel’s mother said she was angry at first, but then figured “it wasn’t such a big deal.” She had had her first child at 12 and was pregnant with Ariel, her third child, by the time she was 15 years old.

Was Ariel expected to have any chance at making healthy sexual decisions if this was her reality? What kind of sex education was she receiving at home? Unfortunately, these situations are all too common.

The information children receive about sexuality needs to start early, before the onset of sexual activity and be developmentally appropriate. While in an ideal world, children would have open, informative and truthful conversations with their parents about sex, often this is not the case.

Dr. Rollyn Ornstein

I know from firsthand experience that parents generally want their children to have information about safe sexual practices, but they are ill-equipped to deliver it or are simply too uncomfortable. A study just published in the January 2010 issue of Pediatrics, by Beckett et al., found through prospective surveys that many parents and adolescents do not discuss important sexual topics prior to the adolescents’ onset of sexual activity.

Kids are relying on other sources for information, e.g. their friends, older siblings, Internet. At a time when risky sex is glamorized in all forms of media, and “sexting” has become common, we are fooling ourselves if we think all teens will remain abstinent.

As a society, we must make sure that they are armed with the information they need to make healthy responsible decisions about sex. It’s time for Pennsylvania to move into the 21st century on this issue.

Rollyn Ornstein, M.D., is assistant professor of pediatrics at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.