Medically Accurate Evidence-Based Sex Education and Abstinence-Only Sex Education

The U.S. has funded abstinence-only programs to combat pregnancy rates for a long time. With numerous factors contributing to teen pregnancies, there have been a lot of ways that people have decided to try to decrease the number of teen pregnancies. For example, schools have either decided that they intend to fully educate their teenage students using medically accurate evidence-based sex education or come from a more conservative approach and give abstinence-only education. The objective of this investigation is to identify whether evidence-based sex education or abstinence-only sex education is more effective at combating teen pregnancy and abortion rates. This investigative thesis utilizes a literature review of six primary articles to determine whether either method is more effective than the other. By examining the efficacy of the type of sex education provided to teenagers, we can thus determine which method should be implemented in more schools to identify interventions that school nurses can perform to help control teen pregnancy rates and the potential for abortion. A study for further research is proposed.