• One in two sexually active youth will contract an STD by age 25
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• Less than half of high school students reported discussion of sex or STDs during their preventive health visits, and males were less likely to have such discussions
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• Chlamydia—an often asymptomatic, yet easily curable, bacterial infection—is most prevalent among persons ages 15 to 24. Guidelines for annual chlamydia screening among sexually active young women are not adequately followed. Only an estimated 30-45% of eligible young females were screened in 2003
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• The majority of adolescents surveyed by the American Social Health Association (ASHA) believed they are tested during routine medical examinations for major STDs: chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV, hepatitis B, herpes, HPV, syphilis, and trichomoniasis.
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• Over half of those surveyed by ASHA believed that their partner was associated with STD preventive behaviors.
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.

STDs and HIV

• More than one million Americans are believed to be living with HIV. An estimated 40,000 new HIV infections have occurred every year since the 1990s. 
  Daniel Yee, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 June 2005.
• A million Americans are now living with the AIDS virus.
  Daniel Yee, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 June 2005. 
• Women account for about 25% of the roughly one million Americans believed to be living with HIV.
  HIV striking more women in South, Steve Sternberg. USA Today. 15 June 2005.
• According to a study of HIV risk factors, of the 132 women surveyed in North Carolina: HIV-positive women began having sex at 14 1⁄2 years old, a year earlier than those who were HIV negative; 97% of those who were HIV-positive reported having unprotected sex versus 83% of those who were uninfected; 2/3 of HIV-positive women reported having had other STDs, compared with the 65% of those who were HIV-negative.
  HIV striking more women in South, Steve Sternberg, USA Today. 15 June 2005.
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 40,000 new HIV infections each year
  CDC widens access to preventive HIV drugs, Anita Manning.  USA Today, 21 January, 2005.
• Only 116 of 270 adolescents (43%) who differentiated condom efficacy among STDs felt that condoms were very effective for HIV, although research has proven condoms to be highly effective against HIV based on lab and epidemiological findings.
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• Forty percent of older adolescents surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation incorrectly believe that the contraceptive “pill” and “shot” protect against STDs and HIV.
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• Although African Americans compromise about 13% if the U.S. population, they accounted for over 50% of new HIV diagnoses reported in 2002 and 49% of AIDS diagnoses in 2003. Among women ages 13 to 24, African American and Hispanic females account for over 75% of reported HIV infections.
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005. .

• Virginity pledgers are less likely to use contraception at first intercourse, but their likelihood of using contraception is no different from sexually active pledgers after their first sexual experience.
  Adolescent virginity pledges and risky sexual behaviors, Robert Rector, The Heritage Foundation, 14 June 2005.
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC.  December 2004.
• Federal appropriations for abstinence-only education programs have exceeded $1 billion since 1982 and over $200 million was proposed by President Bush for federal fiscal year 2006 alone.
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005
• A 2001 study of 6,800 students showed that virgins who took an abstinence pledge were likely to abstain from sex for 18 months longer than those who did not take the pledge.
  Sex in the Body of Christ, Lauren F. Winner.  Christianity Today, May 2005.
• A 2003 Northern Kentucky University study showed that 61% of students who signed sexual-abstinence commitment cards broke their pledges. Of the remaining 39% who kept their pledges, 55% said they’d had oral sex, and did not consider oral sex to be sex. A roughly equivalent percentage of self-identified evangelical college students said they do not consider anal intercourse to be sex.
  Sex in the Body of Christ, Lauren F. Winner.  Christianity Today, May 2005.

• 25% of girls and 30% of boys have sex by age 15, 21% of 9^th graders have slept with four or more partners, 50% of 17 year olds have had sex, 80% of teens have sex by age 19, 55% of teens ages 13-19 have engaged in oral sex.
  Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be sexually ignorant, Shannon Ethridge. Enrichment Journal. 2005.
• A study from The Journal of the American Medical Association that enrolled 2,117 teenage girls and women ages 15-24 revealed that those who received emergency contraceptive pills in advance were nearly twice as likely to use them as other participants
  Study: Sex habits unchanged by emergency pill.  USA Today.  5 January, 2005.
• Nearly 3 in 10 (27%) 13-16 year olds are sexually active
  Nearly 3 in 10 young teens ‘sexually active.’  NBC News, PEOPLE Magazine Poll, 19 January 2005.
• The first “map” of teen sexual behavior has found a chain of 288 one-to-one sexual relationships at a high school in the U.S. Midwest, meaning the teenager at the end of the chain may have had direct sexual contact with only one person, but indirect contact with 286 others
  Sex Map Shows Chain of Almost 300 High School Lovers, Maggie Fox.  Reuters, 24 January, 2005.
• 34 percent of surveyed church members were worried about teen sex, and one-third worried about sex outside marriage.
  Sex in the Body of Christ, Lauren F. Winner.  Christianity Today, May 2005.
• Almost half of high school students nationwide and about 62% of students in the twelfth-grade have had sexual intercourse.
  State of the Nation: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.  American Social Health Association, 2005.
• Fifty-two percent of American women have sex before turning 18, and 75% have sex before they get married.
  Sex in the Body of Christ, Lauren F. Winner.  Christianity Today, May 2005.
• According to a 2002 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Seventeen magazine, more than a quarter of 15 to 17-year-old girls say that sexual intercourse is “almost always” or “most of the time” part of a “casual relationship.”
  Sex in the Body of Christ, Lauren F. Winner.  Christianity Today, May 2005.

• More than half of teens ages 15-19 say they’ve had oral sex.
  Survey: Many teenagers have oral sex, Sharon Jayson. USA Today 9 September 2005.
• 77% of teens would classify oral sex as “sex,” while 43% say oral sex is not seen as being as big a deal as sexual intercourse
  Nearly 3 in 10 young teens ‘sexually active.’  NBC News, PEOPLE Magazine Poll, 19 January 2005.
• Adolescents believe oral sex is safer than intercourse, with less risk to their physical and emotional health.
  A sense of intimacy appears to be lacking, Sharon Jayson, USA Today 19 October 2005.
• Nine in 10 teens who have had oral sex say they know an STD can be spread through oral sex, but only 3 in 10 always use protection when they have oral sex
  Nearly 3 in 10 young teens ‘sexually active.’  NBC News, PEOPLE Magazine Poll, 19 January 2005.
• Roughly half of young teens who have had oral sex or sexual intercourse have been involved in a casual relationship; 67 percent of those that have engaged in casual relationships often do so “to satisfy a sexual desire”
  Nearly 3 in 10 young teens ‘sexually active.’  NBC News, PEOPLE Magazine Poll, 19 January 2005.