Sexual Health Laws in The United States
Many think of the United States as one of the leading countries in education however I learned that is false. The United States is failing its youth in proper sexual health education and that has resulted in higher rates of STI’s as well as unplanned pregnancy. I was also surprised to learn that our country has certain sexual health laws that are barriers for women to have access to contraception and abortion. These laws are not to protect women but to make it harder for them to make these choices they are entitled to.
I will be also be discussing SIECUS and the positive influence it could have if it was advertised more on college campuses as well as the consequences of past sexual behavior, contraceptives and abortion laws in the United States. In this paper I will be using information learned in the classroom, from our textbooks, internet sources, as well as scientific articles and journals to discuss and support the five points of learning mentioned above.
The United states public health approach varies from state, county, and municipality. Some of the more liberal states offer more comprehensive sexual education programs in public school and many of the conservative states teach an abstinence only approach.The United States does not differ in levels of sexual activity and age in which youth becomes sexually active but the youth in the U.S were be found to be more likely to participate in sexual activity before the age of 15, and more likely to report multiple sexual partners and less likely to use condoms.
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(Bonillas,2015). This is a direct result of Americas youth becoming sexually active before they understand the positive and negative implications.
Research conducted in 2010 compared the outcomes of sex education programs in the United States and the Netherlands and found that Dutch teens are less likely to contract an STI or get pregnant. They also are more likely to use contraceptives effectively and have fewer sex partners than U.S. teens. This study showed a possible link to how these societies reacted to comprehensive sexual education (Schalet, 2010) In the United States only 13 states in the nation require sex education to be medically accurate, only 22 states require public schools to teach sex ed and of that only 87 percent of schools teach that abstinence is the most effective safe sex practice (Blackman&Scotti,2018). This means many teachers are left without regulations or guidelines to follow if teaching sexual education at all. It is left to the teacher’s digression which can ultimately lead to teaching children biased non-medically accurate sexual education class.
Many other countries begin teaching sexual education in kindergarten and take a public health approach. Countries such as Sweden have free access at a younger age for contraceptive and STI screenings as well as STI treatments. These countries have lower rates of STI’s and HIV. They also have lower rates of teen or unplanned pregnancy. United States needs to have mandatory sexual education courses in every school. It needs to be medically accurate information that is closely regulated and has a set guidelines to be able to provide children with the tools needed to have healthy sexual relationship in their future. The approach that other countries take proves its effective.
Research published by the Public Library of Science shows that when sex education is comprehensive, students feel more informed, make safer choices and have healthier outcomes resulting in fewer unplanned pregnancies and more protection against sexually transmitted diseases and infection Another point of learning that I wasn’t aware of is how important SIECUS is. I had never heard of it and didn’t know anything about it before this course. The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to affirming that sexuality is a natural and healthy part of life. SIECUS develops, collects, and disseminates information, promotes comprehensive education about sexuality, and advocates the right of individuals to make responsible sexual choices.
It is acknowledged as the institutional voice of these concerns and a pioneer of the comprehensive sex education program. They reach out to policymakers and communities, develop community advocacy projects to help fight attacks on issues related to sexuality, create a media outreach initiative to ensure accurate reporting and representation of sexuality-related issues and, they have established an international program (siecus.org).
Having a program like this is one of the few ways to begin advising adults with medically accurate curriculum to help make sure they have healthy sexual relationships and are provided with tools to help pass that information to children in classrooms and at home. I think this should be a source for more college students to refer to. I had never heard of it and I think during orientation every college should provide students with a list of sources where they can get this information from. This could be helpful for students in going into the education field or could just help students in general. I think adult college students would utilize this if it was something that was offered to them. I also think many college students would volunteer to help pass on information SIECUS has to offer on Sexual health.
Sexual health and the law was always something I thought everyone had easy access to however after reviewing some of the regulations and laws on abortion, contraceptives and sexual behavior laws in the United State I quickly realized that not everyone does. Mandatory regulations such as counseling, waiting periods, gestational bans, banning abortion coverage, making it obligatory to listen to the fetal heartbeat, setting restrictions on abortion providers and requiring one or both parents to give consent for a minor to have an abortion make it harder for individuals to exercise their rights to their own bodies specifically women.
18 states mandate that women be given counseling before an abortion that includes information and 13 of those states include information of the ability of a fetus to feel pain, 14 States have laws that effectively require the woman make two separate trips to the clinic to obtain the procedure, 26 states require one or both parents to consent to the procedure, while 11 require that one or both parents be notified, and 43 states prohibit abortions, generally except when necessary to protect the woman’s life or health, after a specified point in pregnancy due to gestational bans. (Counseling and Waiting Periods for Abortion, 2018).
This list of regulations could impact low income individuals, minors who have parents that do not agree with them having an abortion, and the waiting period and gestational ban may affect someone without the means of transportation to make doctor appts. Making a person listen to the heartbeat may cause them to make a decision that is wrong for them and their future. These regulations of abortion are not to regulate abortions. The regulations perpetuate systems of oppression because they only punish a women for their decision to have an abortion.
Health insurance coverage of contraceptives is a federal law although many states do not follow the guidelines. Currently 10 states prohibit cost sharing for contraceptive, 21 states allow certain employers and insurers to refuse to comply with the contraceptive coverage mandate, 3 state allow church refusal which allows only churches and church associations to refuse to provide coverage and does not permit hospitals or other entities to do so, and 2 states include an almost unlimited refusal clause that allows religious and secular organizations to refuse to provide coverage (Counseling and Waiting Periods for Abortion, 2018).
Even with health insurance there is still a chance you will be denied coverage of contraceptive. People who have low income and poor or no health insurance would have to pay out of pocket for birth control. “Erica Sackin, director of political communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America states “For a number of women, even when they have to pay an insurance copay, let alone out of pocket, contraception can be too expensive. If you have to pay out of pocket, birth control pills can cost up to $600 a year, for example. If you are young, a student, etc., it can be completely unattainable.” (Everyday Health, 2018).
Although abortion, contraceptive and sexual behavior laws seem like a topic of long ago I was surprised to learn how recent they were. Access to contraceptives for single people ruling was in 1972, access to abortion was not granted by the supreme court until 1973, and sodomy laws were still active in Texas until a ruling in 2003. It took a one class in college to remind me that these issues weren’t that long ago. I decided to research some of the negative things that citizens had to go through and continue to go through. I think it’s important to understand these things happened during our generation and could be at risk when electing officials.
Many would attempt to self-induce their abortions or going to untrained practitioners who performed abortions with primitive methods or in unsanitary conditions. Illegal contraceptives caused people to rely on abstinence, Withdrawal, and natural family planning or the billing method to time their sexual activity for times when the woman was less likely to get pregnant (Pregnancy and Birth, 2008). These are some of the least effective contraceptive methods we have learned about in class. Beyond being the least effective a method like abstinence in a relationship may cause marriage, intimacy, or self-image issues. People caught in the crime of sodemy could be fined up to several thousand dollars and face jail time. Many same sex couples were the victim of raids in which the police would invade their home and arrest them while engaging in a consensual sexual act that was illegal. Many people remained convicted of sodomy after the law striking down the sodemy law was passed by the supreme court. Failure for these individuals to register as a sex offender will result in incarceration of up to 20 years.
One specific individual Charlton Green had to go to the federal court, where he asked for a habeas corpus relief. A federal district judge granted his petition, saying Green “should not have been required to register as a sex offender and therefore could not be held guilty of the instant offense.” The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling, saying the federal court lacked authority to entertain a challenge to Green’s sodomy conviction The United States still has a battle ahead of it in sexual education in the classroom, access to abortion, access to contraceptive, promoting and funding important organizations such as SIECUS and protecting citizens by enforcing federal laws in each state.
We need to educate youth at a younger age with regulated medically accurate and healthy relationship education curriculum, support organizations with proper funding and protection laws that allow them to succeed, and most importantly elect officials into office that have the same ideas and values as we do to protect and support laws that allow contraceptives, abortion and most importantly the intimacy between two people regardless of their gender.
These 5 topics were issues I thought people didn’t have anymore because I didn’t have them. I have always had access to rights to my own body, contraceptives, and sexual behavior rights. To see on paper how many barriers there are between people obtain these things was shocking. The information I learned in this course made me feel I had a responsibility to vote in the mid-term election which I have never done before. I like to think I voted for all the people who are or have been negatively affected by these issues. I tried to help keep these barriers from impacts the citizens of the United states who don’t have all of the privileges that I have believe they should.
Sexual Health Laws in The United States. (2022, Nov 08). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/sexual-health-laws-in-the-united-states/
