Besides moral and/or religious grounds (not that one needs more rationale than morality/religion), can one tell a high school that sexual activity during high school has consequnces? First, we need data to see the current landscape. I found the following data from the CDC {Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 2011. MMWR 2012;61(SS-4).} You can find it on the CDC website, but restated here for convenience:
Many young people engage in sexual risk behaviors that can result in unintended health outcomes. For example, among U.S. high school students surveyed in 20111
- 47.4% had ever had sexual intercourse
- 33.7% had had sexual intercourse during the previous 3 months, and, of these
- 39.8% did not use a condom the last time they had sex
- 76.7% did not use birth control pills or Depo-Provera to prevent pregnancy the last time they had sex
- 15.3% had had sex with four or more people during their life
Sexual risk behaviors place adolescents at risk for HIV infection, other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and unintended pregnancy:
- An estimated 8,300 young people aged 13–24 years in the 40 states reporting to CDC had HIV infection in 20092
- Nearly half of the 19 million new STDs each year are among young people aged 15–24 years3
- More than 400,000 teen girls aged 15–19 years gave birth in 20094
