It started with some fake outrage over a proposed law. A law that was meant to address teenage pregnancy. In the middle of Senator Risa Hontiveros trying to address a clear-cut problem, she inevitably faced the puritanical pushback that comes with anything sexual in the Philippines.

It got to the point where she had to downplay the need for proper sex education just for people to understand that the law is a good thing for everyone involved. Which is why we’re now here to course correct.

8. Our teenage pregnancy rate is indeed a problem

Let’s face it: we were all stupid when we were kids. And without proper sex education, we will discover a lot of things the way people generally discover them: in real time. And by then, it’s too late.

While the country’s pregnancy rate dropped significantly in 2022, there was an entire pandemic in between that enforced that by default. In the meantime, that rate is still 5.4%, which is still too high. And a lot of that has to do with them not knowing any better.

7. When it comes to this, parents don’t always know best

We keep having this debate whenever talk about sex education comes up: let the parents do it. Have you seen a lot of them even try?!?

The reality is, kids will find out one way or another about all of these things, especially in an age where they have access to the internet and policing all their waking moments is simply an impossibility.

6. This fights rampant misinformation

Have you seen Facebook comments sections about anything involving this topic? There is so much misinformation from clearly confident people that it’s bordering on ridiculous.

Administering proper sex education means that kids don’t make up their minds about sexuality based on their equally clueless friends or Pornhub. Otherwise, they just end up being another one of those people on Facebook who think that throwing up a Bible quote is enough of an argument against teenage pregnancy.

5. It’s a long-term solution against poverty

If kids are given proper sex education, then they at least know that there are more options than just abstinence or unprotected sex, because it is very obvious when faced with that false dichotomy, that plenty of kids will choose the latter.

An unplanned child is a huge burden to place on kids who are just starting out in life, and we already know that in this country, abortion is not legally on the table anytime soon. Something’s got to give, and as a country that doesn’t have an aging population, there is definitely some room for us to maneuver. 

It’s high time we stopped treating kids as a lottery ticket. 

4. It empowers kids to, at the very least, know when something is wrong

The fact is, the rates of sexual abuse of kids in the Philippines by people they are related to is insane, and it’s built into how families work in the country – we don’t teach kids about bodily autonomy at all, expecting them to kiss and bless every single family member introduced to them.

If they have no idea that saying “no” is an option, how do you expect them to respond to a trusted and even loved family member taking advantage of them? 

Kids don’t need to have a graphic understanding of sex to be taught how consent works. And for them to understand that nobody, especially not those they look up to and trust the most, has any right to touch them inappropriately. 

3. So they would know how their bodies actually work

We have a birth mortality rate of 21.8 deaths for every 1000 live births. Those are horrible numbers, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that the person giving birth simply wasn’t prepared for it in any way. We are a country that has literally put an unfair stigma on contraception and family planning while also saying that abortion is not at all an option. This deadly combination has resulted in so much more harm than good, and the numbers tell that story all too well.

2. It addresses the rising cases of HIV and AIDS

It’s not just about contraception, mind you – it’s also about the sensibility of getting one’s self tested. 

Let’s face it: people are scared of testing themselves for STIs, obviously because of the way society has painted people afflicted with them. As a country, our rate of HIV transmittal is not something to be proud of, and it has a whole lot to do with people refusing to get tested when it’s the most sensible thing to do. Proper sex education especially for high schoolers should help address that knowledge gap immensely.

1. The youth deserve better than wishful thinking

The ultimate question that people who are against proper sex education need to answer is this: what’s the alternative? They’ve never answered that satisfactorily and think that they can just scare kids into saving themselves until marriage, all the while misinforming them of the actual choices that are available to them.

They deserve better. We deserve better. And it’s high time we stopped pretending that our country is too “pure” and “innocent” to ever indulge in this, when we literally have one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the entire ASEAN region. That genie has not been in the bottle for a long, long time, and we have to teach kids how to rub it the right way when the right age for such a lesson, as awkward as it may be, arrives.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Sound off in the comments!