Sex Education Programs

League of Women Voters^®
of Mississippi, Inc.

WHY IS THIS A PRIORITY: Mississippi has extremely high rates of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and single mothers.
LWV POSITION: We support sex education programs in our schools which includes community awareness as well as specific preventative and follow-up services for pregnant teenagers.
FACT: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a report published January 7, 2009, ranked Mississippi FIRST in the nation in teen birth.

FACT: Sexually transmitted diseases and infections are on the rise in MS, Syphilis in MS spiked 75% between 2005 and 2006, despite abstinence-only-until-marriage programming in public schools statewide.

FACT: MS law currently encourages harmful practices in the public schools. MS law does not require sexuality education in the public schools. Where schools opt to have sexuality education, the law requires that all programming emphasize an abstinence-only-until-marriage philosophy. The law does not allow in-school sexuality education classes to include demonstrations of how to use condoms or information about how to use other forms of contraception.

FACT: Despite abstinence-only-until-marriage programming, Mississippi's rate of birth outside of marriage is striking: nationally, 38.5% of all births happened outside of marriage: in Mississippi, 54.8% of all births happened outside of marriage.

The League supports the following community awareness efforts as well as specific preventative and follow-up services for pregnant teenagers:

Support comprehensive classroom instruction on human reproduction, parenting, sexual responsibility, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Support individual counseling and a district-wide policy of follow-up by school officials to make educational services available and accessible for pregnant teenagers including a confidential clearinghouse and telephone hotline and on-site day care services in schools to allow for the continued education of teen parents.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: January 22, 2012 21:26 PST.