The U.S. is Struggling When it Comes to Sex Ed

The results of the CDC’s latest sex ed report are… not great. (Photo: Getty Images)

The CDC just released its 2014 School Health Profiles, and found that sex education in schools is seriously lacking. While the results of the report are disappointing, they also highlight a dangerous system, one that leaves students vulnerable to teen pregnancy, STDs, and more.

Of all sex topics covered in the CDC study, the benefits of being sexually abstinent were addressed the most in classes, “from 23.3% to 96.5% across states (median: 77.2%)” — even though many high school students are already sexually active. How to use a condom was largely ignored, addressed in only 4.7% to 54.7% (median: 23.3%) of classrooms across states.

And when sexual health is addressed, it’s often coming from a physical education teacher, rather than an expert in the subject. "It was a little awkward,“ one student told NPR. "One period [my teacher] was telling me to do jumping jacks and the next she was telling me about gonorrhea… I started to see my girlfriends getting pregnant, and this is middle school. It broke my heart.” She believes her friends would have made safer decisions if they’d had a better education, she tells NPR — "There’s such a big stigma around being a teen mom… With the information they should have been getting, they probably would have made a healthier decision.“

Related: Doctors ‘Horrified’ By Republican Candidates’ Views On Vaccines

And teen pregnancy isn’t the only risk coming out of shoddy sex ed. Almost half of those diagnosed with STDs each year are under the age of 24, a statistic that could be greatly reduced if younger people who how to use condoms, the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health director, Stephanie Zaza, told NPR. "We can actually help prepare students and help them avoid these risks,” she says, “if we can do a good job educating them before they become sexually active.”

As Yahoo Health reported in August, sex education has always been spotty and abstinence-focused — only 22 states require sex ed, and only 13 of those 22 require it to be medically accurate. It’s due in part to a system that leaves curricula up to the state, and limits money that can be spent on curricula that don’t push an abstinence-first or -only agenda.

A Mississippi law, for example, bans condom demonstrations during a sex education classes. (Any wonder why the state ranks #2 in the country for teen pregnancy rates?) And Congress recently increased funding for programs that promote abstinence until marriage, even though that message has been shown to be ineffective and potentially damaging — especially for women.

Read This Next: The Best Sex Ed Video You’ll Ever Watch: John Oliver Takes on America’s Subpar Sexual Education

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.