Our View: Planned Parenthood defends rights of youth

It's 2018, and women throughout the world still struggle to access health care, quality education and equal employment while facing gender-based violence from their spouses, families and strangers.

Planned Parenthood is one organization that tries to improve the lives of women and their partners by providing access to comprehensive health care and information. According to its mission statement, the group also seeks to promote policies that give Americans greater access to these services.

That's why Planned Parenthood sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week over its intention to recast its Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program with an abstinence-only emphasis.

"Young people have the right to the information and skills they need to protect their health," Dawn Laguens, vice president of Planned Parenthood, said in a news release.

According to the HHS department website, the program "invests in both the implementation of evidence-based programs and the development and evaluation of new and innovative approaches to prevent teen pregnancy."

Since abstinence-only education has been ineffective in preventing teen pregnancy, according to 2017 statistics from the Journal of Adolescent Health, the Trump administration's insistence on abstinence would go against the basic tenets of the TPP program.

Since the program's implementation in 2010, the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. has fallen 41 percent. Though that drop can be attributed to many factors, the prevalence of comprehensive sex education - programs that teach both abstinence, contraceptive use and how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases - has played a large role in reducing unintended pregnancies.

While there is value in abstinence - it's the only way to prevent pregnancy that is 100 percent effective, after all - it requires perfection to be effective, and that kind of self-control is not something every teenager is able to achieve.

Some 89 percent of women who do not have a child as a teen will graduate high school, according to statistics from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. But for girls who have a child before the age of 18, that graduation rate drops to 38 percent.

Reproductive rights have long been seen as a women's issue, but family planning affects all of us - men, women and society as a whole. By limiting teenagers' access to comprehensive sex education, the Trump administration is condemning our youth to live less successful lives.