Med Students Call for Comprehensive Sex Ed in Schools at the AMA Meeting

CHICAGO — Medical students called for comprehensive sex education in schools during preliminary discussions at the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates meeting here.

The Medical Student Section (MSS) sought to remove language from current AMA policy stating that the “primary responsibility for family life education is in the home,” and pressed for a draft policy calling on “schools at all education levels to implement comprehensive, developmentally appropriate sexuality education programs.”

Meghna Peesapati, a delegate from Indiana speaking on behalf of the MSS, pointed out that while more than 40% of adolescents engage in sexual activity, only about 10% use condoms.

“Studies have found time and again that abstinence-based ‘sex ed’ has no effect on decreasing teen pregnancy rates and does not delay the initiation of sexual activity,” she said. For that reason, the MSS has called for shifting funding from abstinence-only measures to more comprehensive sexual education.

The U.S. has consistently higher rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) compared with any other industrialized nation. In their proposed resolution, the MSS noted that while 39 states currently mandate sex education, only 12 states mandate that sex education be medically accurate.

Capt. Joshua Schier, MD, MPH, chief medical officer of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, who was speaking on behalf of the CDC, pointed out that less than half of all high school students receive sexual health education in school, as do fewer than 18% of all middle school students.

“Students who participate in these programs are more likely to delay the initiation of sexual intercourse, have fewer sexual partners, [and] have fewer experiences of unprotected sex,” he said.

Stacey Ludwig, MD, an alternate delegate from the California Medical Association, noted that adolescents who are educated about sexual health are less likely to contract STIs and have unintended pregnancies. LGBTQ individuals, in particular, have higher rates of HIV, STIs, and unintended pregnancies, which is all the more reason for making comprehensive sex education available in all 50 states, she said.

Seven states “negatively frame homosexuality” in sex education curricula, she added. “That also needs to end.”

William Gilmer, MD, speaking on behalf of the Texas Delegation, opposed the removal of language around the family’s role in discussions of sexual health. While he acknowledged that there is a “big gap” in education, “we should continue to recognize that the primary responsibility for family life education is in the home.”

Mary Campagnolo, MD, MBA, who spoke on behalf of the New Jersey Delegation, supported the rest of the resolution but also called for keeping this language. “Perhaps there could be some other wordsmithing … to just take out ‘primary’ and say that there is ‘some responsibility’ or ‘much responsibility,'” she said.

But Zarah Iqbal, MD, MPH, a delegate speaking on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics, argued that a lot of parents aren’t comfortable speaking to their children about sexual relationships or don’t have the knowledge to answer their questions.

Peesapati also held firm on the idea of scrapping this language. Parents from different cultural backgrounds, including her own, as well as children of refugees, asylum seekers, and children in foster care, “do not have access to parents who might talk to them,” she said.

Corliss Varnum, MD, a delegate from New York speaking on his own behalf, supported the resolution overall, but raised concerns about discussing sex “at all levels of education.” He questioned whether the AMA really intended to start these discussions with young kids.

In response, Laura Halpin, MD, a child psychiatrist from Los Angeles, who has treated children who have experienced trauma at early ages and was speaking on her own behalf, noted that there are age-appropriate ways to have these talks. “One of the most important reasons to have this education at a young age is to know the right names of the body parts to know how to be able to ask for help. To know what’s appropriate and what’s not,” she said.

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  Shannon Firth has been reporting on health policy as MedPage Today’s Washington correspondent since 2014. She is also a member of the site’s Enterprise & Investigative Reporting team. Follow