“Does sex education encourage sex? Many parents are afraid that talking about sex with their teenagers will be taken as permission for the teen to have sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the more children learn about sexuality from talking with their parents and teachers and reading accurate books, the less they feel compelled to find out for themselves.” - Benjamin Spock Sex education is supposed to help prevent against things like unwanted pregnancies, STD’s, and HIV, but with its absence in our nation's education system, it is not doing as well as it should. Ever since the Reagan administration, the United States has pumped billions of dollars into abstinence only education programs. The problem with this is that abstinence only programs cause fear towards sex, and do not teach about safe sex. Our education system is supposed to educate students, so having a comprehensive sex education at the age where teens have sex should be done. It is well known that adults do not want teens to have sex and that they think teaching teens about condoms will make them more likely to have sex. Thus, they say, “NO SEX UNTIL MARRIAGE”, and sometimes that is all teens get in terms of sex education. But guess what? Teens are still having sex. Forty-six percent of U.S. students have had sex in high school, sixty-two percent have had sexual intercourse by their senior year and a whole eighty percent of Evangelical Christians admit to having sex before marriage (NSCL). Hence, it appears that the whole idea of an abstinence only plan is not working. Furthermore, states with abstinence only policies seem to have the highest rates in teen pregnancies (Advocates for Youth). Coincidence? No. Studies show that abstinence only programs have literally no effect in having teens abstain from sex. And researchers have found that teens who receive abstinence education only are less likely to use contraception. Moreover, teens who