EDITORIAL:Pennsylvania should require schools to teach comprehensive sex education
May 2-THE ISSUE
Teen pregnancy rates have fallen significantly in the United States over the last three decades, from 61.8 births per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 in 1991, to 11.7 births in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. County and state levels have declined, too: In Lancaster County, the rate of pregnancy per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 dropped from 15.9 in 2015 to 12.3 in 2023, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The statewide rate declined from 21.5 to 17.5 over the same period.
The School District of Lancaster is facing turmoil over its structural deficit and related financial difficulties, some of those issues worsened by a serious accounting mistake.
But the district does a truly laudable job of keeping pregnant students and young parents in school and on a path to graduation via a statewide program known as Teen ELECT, which stands for Education Leading to Employment and Career Training.
As LNP - LancasterOnline reported, "McCaskey's Teen ELECT program recently marked 30 years of helping teen parents, and in that time, the number of teen mothers and fathers it serves annually has been cut in half, from about 100 to 50."
Melissa Reed coordinates Teen ELECT at McCaskey, and Michelle Myers runs the equivalent program through Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. They told this newspaper that teen pregnancy, in general, has declined because of nonjudgmental sexual education that addresses the situations teens face.
"The education piece is huge," Myers said. "Not shying away from the subject and being very realistic about ... if they're going to engage in sexual activity, how do they be safe about it?"
Acknowledging reality is critical because, as the data shows, teenagers have not stopped having sex. According to the CDC, about 1 in 3 high school students reported having sexual intercourse in 2023.
Teenagers are not prepared emotionally or financially for the consequences of having sex. We wish they wouldn't have it. But wishing isn't an effective way of keeping teens from suffering the consequences of having sex.
Comprehensive sex education is what works to that end - the key word there being "comprehensive."
Evidence-based comprehensive sex education teaches about everything from consent to contraception to bodily autonomy to healthy relationships to human sexuality, all while using medically accurate language.
Sexual risk avoidance education, by contrast, emphasizes the benefits of abstaining from nonmarital sexual activity to reduce sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancy, according to KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation).
Proponents of sexual risk avoidance education "argue that teaching abstinence to youth will delay teens' first sexual encounter and will reduce the number of partners they have, leading to a reduction in rates of teen pregnancy and (sexually transmitted infections)," KFF noted in an October 2025 report. But research supporting that argument is limited and "some studies have documented no impacts on pregnancy and birth rates."
Abstinence-only sex ed just leaves teens more vulnerable to the worst outcomes.
So why isn't every high school teaching evidence-based comprehensive sex education?
Unbelievably, that's in part because, as this newspaper reported, Pennsylvania does not require schools to teach sex education. Among the 29 states that do require sex ed are our neighbors New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware.
Pennsylvania only mandates HIV education with a curriculum that emphasizes abstinence.
Not requiring sex ed is incredibly shortsighted and unhelpful. In the absence of comprehensive sex ed delivered by trusted and skilled educators, teens seeking answers will turn to their peers or the internet (which, particularly in this artificial intelligence era, abounds with misinformation). We'd much rather have a health teacher imparting sensitive information than a TikTok influencer. Leaving teens to rely on the internet seems much more likely to lead to risky sexual behaviors.
We strongly urge the state Legislature to remedy this situation.
Democratic state Reps. Mary Jo Daley, of Montgomery County, and La'Tasha Mayes, of Allegheny County, have proposed a resolution recognizing May as "Sex Ed for All Month" in Pennsylvania; state Rep. Nikki Rivera, D-Lancaster, is a co-sponsor.
If this seems ironic - because sex ed isn't mandated for all students in the commonwealth - that's the point. As Daley and Mayes wrote in a memo, "many young people enter adulthood with inaccurate, incomplete, or conflicting information about sexual and reproductive health, leaving them vulnerable to unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, violence, exploitation, abuse, and coercion. Providing young people with information on sexuality that is age-appropriate, medically accurate, and free from biases ... can help them lead healthy lives, both physically and emotionally."
Republican state Rep. Joe Hamm of Lycoming County has introduced legislation that would require "early human life development instruction in schools," which would include "an ultrasound video showing development of vital organs at specified gestational ages, as well as a computer-generated animated rendering for every significant marker of human development, beginning with fertilization." Republican state Rep. David Zimmerman of East Earl Township is a co-sponsor; a companion bill has been introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate.
Hamm's measure is clearly an anti-abortion effort. So, too, we'd argue, would be teaching about contraception as part of comprehensive sex education. Fewer unintended pregnancies mean fewer abortions.
McCaskey High School does a terrific job of keeping pregnant students and young parents in school, while teaching them parenting techniques, child development lessons and skills such as CPR.
But teen parenthood is not an easy path.
We should give teens the information they need to steer clear of it.
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