Ending the 'conspiracy of silence': Abstinence-plus education in SAISD

For teenage girls, the idea of having a child of their own should be a distant daydream filled with baby showers, pastel colors, and a Prince Charming to share it with. Instead, a large number of teens have found that the fantasy they once imagined is anything but.

In 2006, an estimated 38.4 out of 1,000 girls in Bexar County, San Antonio aged fifteen to seventeen became victims of unplanned teenage pregnancies. Many argue that this number could be reduced by replacing "abstinence-only" sex education in San Antonio schools with a more in-depth and scientifically accurate "abstinence-plus" teaching style. In spring 2007, San Antonio Independent School District began using the abstinence-plus program "Big Decisions" in hopes of finding a cure for the city's large number of teen pregnancies and births. Bexar County has a teen birth rate almost double the national rate, most of them from teen moms in San Antonio. Two controversial abstinence-plus bills are currently being presented to the Texas government and their supporters say that if they are passed, the bills will make sex education more effective for public school students in the state. 

"We have a teen pregnancy epidemic in Texas," said Rep. Joaquin Castro, a resident of San Antonio who wrote one of the bills for proposed abstinence-plus education. "We need a comprehensive approach to a problem we can no longer ignore."

Bexar County, which includes the city of San Antonio as well as its smaller communities and surrounding areas, has remarkably high rates of adolescent pregnancy, birth, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). According to current state law, instructors must teach that abstinence is the "only way" to prevent STIs and pregnancy, but can also choose to include information about birth control with an abstinence-plus method. 

According to a survey of Bexar County public schools done by the San Antonio Express News, eleven of the county's sixteen school districts teach abstinence-only before marriage and present contraceptives (birth control) only in terms of their failure rates. Five districts, including SAISD, use the abstinence-plus approach, which teaches how contraceptives can be used as an effective form of prevention. SAISD started using the "Big Decisions" curriculum for ninth graders in three area high schools in spring 2007.  

"Big Decisions" is an abstinence-plus program created locally by Dr. Janet Realini of Project WORTH, the city's teen pregnancy-prevention program. Designed for students in grades seven through twelve, the program offers information that is "medically accurate and up-to-date," according to its website. Realini has played an important role in local and national sex education development. She received the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Public Health Award in 2007 and the American Academy of Family Physicians Public Health Award in 2008. 

Dr. Arturo Vega, an associate professor at UTSA's Center for Policy Studies, reported on the program after its first semester of "Big Decisions" classes. In his evaluation, Vega stated that the program has been "well-received by both the students and staff facilitators" and that student participants have shown "improvement in attitudes and intentions regarding abstinence and improvement in knowledge and attitudes about contraception" since beginning the program. 

Public schools in Texas are not required by law to teach sex education at all, but many choose to do so in light of the fact that Texas has the third highest teen birth rate in the nation. Because money is tight, most schools in Texas have chosen to use abstinence-only programs such as "Worth the Wait" that are paid for by the government. There is no federally-funded program that teaches about both abstinence and contraception. 

The bills being debated, called the "Education Works Act," were written by two representatives from San Antonio, Joaquin Castro (D) and Michael Villarreal (D). The first bill would still require abstinence be stressed as the only 100 percent effective way to avoid STIs and pregnancy, but would also require sex education programs to inform students about types of birth control that can help avoid pregnancy and disease. The second bill would require that all information about condoms and other forms of birth control be accurate, objective, and complete, as approved by a specific list of professional health organizations. 

Abstinence-only information "isn't keeping Texas teens from becoming sexually active, nor does it help avoid pregnancies or STIs," Castro wrote in an opinion article in the San Antonio Express News. In fact, he says it "only makes it more difficult for teens to make healthy and informed life choices."

The Education Works Act, if passed, "will ensure that teens learn about abstinence, healthy relationships and appropriate birth control methods so that they can protect themselves from an unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections when they do become sexually active, whether that is at age 16, 18 or 25," Castro said.