Sex ed

Some groups credit the high teenage birth rate in Texas to the state’s quality of sex education. Texas is one of 26 states that does not require public schools to teach sex ed. However, any schools that decide to do so are required by state law to emphasize abstinence until marriage and don’t need to provide information about contraception. 

According to the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Director of Policy and Data Jennifer Biundo, research has shown that sex ed has many benefits, including the prevention of teen pregnancies. Some students, like senior Nathaniel Fika, agree with Biundo on the relationship between sex ed and pregnancy. 

“What can be done to decrease that is properly teaching how to have safe sex, protection, what to do and what not to do,” Fika said. 

Marcus 2008 graduate Alyssa Helbig never discussed sex ed or contraceptives in school or at home, so she didn’t know much about different forms of protection. Two months into her first year of college, she found herself pregnant after having sex for the first time. 

“It was scary. You don’t really expect that to happen to you because you are never going to be one of those people,” Helbig said. “I remember during the end of my pregnancy I was in bed, wanting to sleep all the time and crying all the time and not really wanting to do anything.”

Helbig believes that schools should teach more than abstinence. As a parent, she says that she wants her son to be educated on the options available to him. 

“I think no matter what, if you introduce it in a school or not in the school, there’s going to be those handful of people who are going to want to experiment anyways,” Helbig said. “I think if you are talking more freely about it, then there might be a lower percent of teen pregnancies because that way they’re educated in what not to do or what to do.” 

On the other side of the debate, many parent-formed groups, including Concerned Parents of Texas, suggest that increased sex ed will lead to more teens having sex, putting themselves at risk of getting pregnant. 

“The curriculum normalizes and teaches about all sexual behaviors, and falsely implies that everyone is having sex,” Concerned Parents of Texas advocate Karole Fedrick said in a statement. “That absolves students who are sexually active and puts pressure to become sexually active on students who are not.”