On Tuesday, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the non-prescription sale of Plan B One-Step to girls as young as 15 years old. While the approval did not include total over-the-counter access of Plan B for any age—which many groups have pushed for and a federal lawsuit has threatened to …
Married couples across the country will commemorate St. Valentine’s Day today by exchanging cards and flowers and raising a glass to love. But marriage also provides a host of social, economic, and even health benefits. As research on Heritage’s FamilyFacts.org demonstrates, married families tend to have better financial health, increased …
A new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has some parents and physicians concerned—and rightly so. The statement recommends that pediatricians counsel adolescent patients on some of the most commonly used forms of “emergency contraception” in the U.S., specifically recommending that all teenagers receive counseling and advance …
The abstinent minority has now become the majority. Over the last two decades, teens have become more likely to remain sexually abstinent. According to the 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 53 percent of high school students have remained abstinent, an increase of 15 percent, and two in three are …
Fact: According to the latest National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 53 percent of high school students have remained sexually abstinent. Indeed, in the last two decades, the share of abstinent teens has increased by nearly 15 percent. Moreover, two in three teens are currently abstinent. For teens, delaying sexual activity …
Statistics released today about American teens’ sexual behavior belie the popular portrayal of American youth as permissive and careless. New data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that the majority of teens have remained abstinent. Though the proportion of teens who are sexually experienced has remained relatively unchanged …
The scandal and heartache of teen pregnancy has been exploited by producers of popular prime-time TV, who have made stories of 16-year-olds stumbling through accelerated adolescence into marketable drama. Likewise, news media have scrutinized the teen birth phenomenon for some time. The truly shocking and underreported story, however, is that …
On Thursday, The Washington Post heralded the findings of a new survey reporting on sexual activity in the United States. While the study pronounced such positive findings as an increase in abstinence among teens and college-age adults and a decrease in teen pregnancy, there is bleaker story that cannot be …
