Oh for crying out loud! This isn't so much shameful as it is outrageous: for all the fucking bullshit we subject ourselves and our children to in order to "protect" teens from learning the names of the body parts they're getting pregnant with, Americans have an outrageous, even atrocious teen pregnancy rate compared to the "decadent and depraved" nations of Western Europe. Em & Lo says

Image from the website for the film Let's Talk About Sex.

Its title may be tired, but the documentary LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX is as relevant and necessary as ever in a country that’s schizo about sex, with teens paying the price in crazy rates of pregnancy and STDs.

Source: Em & Lo

And no, it's not because they cover up their teenage pregnancy rates because they have buy-one-get-one-free abortion on demand. Because even if that were true (rate of pregnancy being independent of the rate of live birth, miscarriage, or abortion -- all of which are higher here too) another graphic from the same site can't be wallpapered that way because it's not about pregnancy at all.

Image from the website for the film Let's Talk About Sex.

Ouch!

American teenagers get pregnant and contract STIs at atrocious rates because American adults keep being childish about what teenagers need to know to avoid them the first place.

And no, the blunt trauma of abstinence-only education, while evidently comforting to childish adults, doesn't seem to be the answer. It doesn't work.

In fact it doesn't even appear to work for teens who aren't ready and would prefer to wait! For that you need stuff like, oh, say, negotiation, self-assessment, confidence building, self determination, and clear boundary setting. You don't get that from classroom instruction involving sweater lint, lollypops, and shame.