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I am a nurse practitioner in public health. I have been working in reproductive health for 20+ years.  I have two comments: First, I have seen a drastic change since abstinence only teaching has been going on and that is that teens and young adults know NOTHING about pregnancy and STD prevention. They have all sorts of mis-information and think everything can be treted with an antibiotic. They are shocked when I diagnose them with HPV or herpes and find out they will have it forever.  Also, they beleive that the morning after pill is abortion and therefore won't take it to prevent an unintended pregnancy. Second, we really should be focusing on the reality of sexuality. These young adults and teens have so many sex partners these days.  It is painful to see 14 year-olds who have already had 20 or more sex partners.  It is almost like they think once they have had sex they are so bad (in an abstinence-only world) that they lose all sense of boundaries and perspective. We need to be giving them the facts about the wealth of options available to them and how to think about themselves, their potential partners and their future. Thanks.

posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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