THE ISSUE<\/p>\n
Teen pregnancy rates have fallen significantly in the United States over the last three decades, from 61.8 births per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 in 1991, to 11.7 births in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. County and state levels have declined, too: In Lancaster County, the rate of pregnancy per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 dropped from 15.9 in 2015 to 12.3 in 2023, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The statewide rate declined from 21.5 to 17.5 over the same period.<\/p>\n
The School District of Lancaster is facing turmoil over its structural deficit and related financial difficulties, some of those issues worsened by a serious accounting mistake<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the district does a truly laudable job of keeping pregnant students and young parents in school and on a path to graduation via a statewide program known as Teen ELECT, which stands for Education Leading to Employment and Career Training.<\/p>\n As LNP | LancasterOnline reported,<\/a> \u201cMcCaskey\u2019s Teen ELECT program recently marked 30 years of helping teen parents, and in that time, the number of teen mothers and fathers it serves annually has been cut in half, from about 100 to 50.\u201d<\/p>\n Melissa Reed coordinates Teen ELECT at McCaskey, and Michelle Myers runs the equivalent program through Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. They told this newspaper that teen pregnancy, in general, has declined because of nonjudgmental sexual education that addresses the situations teens face.<\/p>\n \u201cThe education piece is huge,\u201d Myers said. \u201cNot shying away from the subject and being very realistic about … if they\u2019re going to engage in sexual activity, how do they be safe about it?\u201d<\/p>\n Acknowledging reality is critical because, as the data shows, teenagers have not stopped having sex. According to the CDC, about 1 in 3 high school students reported having sexual intercourse in 2023.<\/p>\n Teenagers are not prepared emotionally or financially for the consequences of having sex. We wish they wouldn\u2019t have it. But wishing isn\u2019t an effective way of keeping teens from suffering the consequences of having sex.<\/p>\n Comprehensive sex education is what works to that end \u2014 the key word there being \u201ccomprehensive.\u201d<\/p>\n Evidence-based comprehensive sex education teaches about everything from consent to contraception to bodily autonomy to healthy relationships to human sexuality, all while using medically accurate language.<\/p>\n Sexual risk avoidance education, by contrast, emphasizes the benefits of abstaining from nonmarital sexual activity to reduce sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancy, according to KFF<\/a> (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation).<\/p>\n Proponents of sexual risk avoidance education \u201cargue that teaching abstinence to youth will delay teens\u2019 first sexual encounter and will reduce the number of partners they have, leading to a reduction in rates of teen pregnancy and (sexually transmitted infections),\u201d KFF noted in an October 2025 report. But research supporting that argument is limited and \u201csome studies have documented no impacts on pregnancy and birth rates.\u201d<\/p>\n Abstinence-only sex ed just leaves teens more vulnerable to the worst outcomes.<\/p>\n So why isn\u2019t every high school teaching evidence-based comprehensive sex education?<\/p>\n Unbelievably, that\u2019s in part because, as this newspaper reported, Pennsylvania does not require schools to teach sex education. Among the 29 states that do require sex ed are our neighbors New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania only mandates HIV education with a curriculum that emphasizes abstinence.<\/p>\n Not requiring sex ed is incredibly shortsighted and unhelpful. In the absence of comprehensive sex ed delivered by trusted and skilled educators, teens seeking answers will turn to their peers or the internet (which, particularly in this artificial intelligence era, abounds with misinformation). We\u2019d much rather have a health teacher imparting sensitive information than a TikTok influencer. Leaving teens to rely on the internet seems much more likely to lead to risky sexual behaviors.<\/p>\n We strongly urge the state Legislature to remedy this situation.<\/p>\n Democratic state Reps. Mary Jo Daley, of Montgomery County, and La\u2019Tasha Mayes, of Allegheny County, have proposed a resolution recognizing May as \u201cSex Ed for All Month\u201d in Pennsylvania<\/a>; state Rep. Nikki Rivera, D-Lancaster, is a co-sponsor.<\/p>\n If this seems ironic \u2014 because sex ed isn\u2019t mandated for all students in the commonwealth \u2014 that\u2019s the point. As Daley and Mayes wrote in a memo, \u201cmany young people enter adulthood with inaccurate, incomplete, or conflicting information about sexual and reproductive health, leaving them vulnerable to unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, violence, exploitation, abuse, and coercion. Providing young people with information on sexuality that is age-appropriate, medically accurate, and free from biases … can help them lead healthy lives, both physically and emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n