Abstract

PIP: After introducing the magnitude and costs of the problem of teenage pregnancy in the U.S., this review discusses the most important legal issues and court challenges against sex education and contraceptive services in schools. The U.S. teen pregnancy rate, even among whites, is the highest in the developed world, amounting to over 250,000 teen single parents yearly, with high costs in maternal mortality, welfare support, lost educational and occupational opportunities. Some of the court challenges to sex education include the claims that it prevents free exercise of religion, that it establishes a new religion, that it invades the parent-child relationship, and that it is a genocidal plot to control black population. None of these claims have held up in court, generally because children are not coerced to attend sex education classes. In-school sex counseling or contraceptive services have been challenged on the issue of consent, either of the youth or the parent. The courts have generally held that minors have the right to privacy and consent over their own childbearing, the Title X projects are intended to prevent unwanted pregnancies. In 1981 Congress amended Title X adding a section intended to encourage family participation in the projects. The Secretary of Health and Human Services proposed that parents be notified of contraceptive prescriptions. Some states have restricted school-based programs.