Is Utah’s sexual health program up to date?

Sixty-eight percent of Utah agrees that the sexual education program needs to consist of more than just abstinence. Although teachers are allowed to mention contraception they are not required to. This poses a problem for many young people. 

Having uneducated teenagers leads to the more frequent spread of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, and more. Utah may be taking the first steps towards a more comprehensive sexual health program, but it may be a slow-moving progress. 

Davis County’s program doesn’t allow the teachers to advocate for LGBTQ+. This can be harming to queer students and lead to them not being educated on sexual health. Utah teachers cannot answer questions about specifics in same sex intercourse and are not allowed to promote same sex attraction.  

However, that same program doesn’t encourage heterosexual intercourse either. Leaving all students dangerously unprotected.  

Davis County’s current sex ed programs do not allow teachers to talk about specifics in intercourse. Students are told to just wait until marriage. In a perfect world everyone would wait till marriage, but if the world were that way, we wouldn’t have any STDs.  

Some students aren’t taught how to use a condom but can be shown a video of a woman giving birth or see graphic images of STD’s on genitals. Scaring students tends to be a common teaching tool for abstinence.  

 Some blame the lack of progress in the sexual health programs on the large majority of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The church promotes abstinence until marriage, which could be one of the reasons Utah’s programs remain outdated.  

Although there are many downsides to the health programs, there are a lot of pros to the program as well. The health program promotes eating healthily and exercising. Most students learn about human anatomy, and the risks of substance abuse, and some programs teach CPR and first aid.