Front-page headlines nationwide recently reported on a nationally representative study showing that more than one in four teen girls has a sexually transmitted infection. The infection rates were one in four for whites and Hispanics and higher for blacks.
Sadly, 40 percent of sexually active teen girls were infected. Even among girls reporting only one lifetime partner, one in five had at least one STI.
As a community volunteer with teens in a West Chicago and someone who opened my home for eight years to pregnant girls, I join others who care in asking, “What can we do?” I’ve been waiting to hear the usual cry for more teaching on condom use.
But I’ve noticed a curious recent change in rhetoric from the “safe sex” crowd. The mantra has now become “safer sex.”
Why? I think the answer’s right on the condom box. Here’s what the most popular brand says: “If used properly, latex condoms will help to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV infection (AIDS) and many other sexually transmitted diseases.”
“If used properly” is a big “if” for teens when actual use even in the general population has a 16 percent failure rate. It’s true that HIV transmission is reduced 85 percent, but would we find a 15 percent failure rate acceptable when it came to airplane crashes?
And what about those many other STIs? Two of the four STIs tested for in the study — HPV and herpes — are spread by skin-to-skin contact.
In short, condoms don’t cover everything. Not to mention the fact that they do nothing to protect a teen’s heart from the emotional consequences of early sexual activity.
It’s time to get the truth out about the “safer sex” message. The safest sex of all is abstinence with the anticipation of worry-free sex in a truly committed relationship: marriage!
Tori E. Libby, West Chicago
