CDC: One in four teen girls has STI

One in four teen girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted infection (STI), according to a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That adds up to more than 3 million girls.

Among girls who admitted having had sex, the rate was 40 percent, The Associated Press reported. Human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, is the most common STI in teen girls ages 14 to 19, the CDC found.

But the CDC conference in Chicago, where the study was released, ignored a key component, said Linda Klepacki, sexual health analyst for Focus on the Family Action.

"With such high disease rates in teenagers, we're just missing a tremendous opportunity to talk to them about the benefits of being abstinent until marriage," she told Family News in Focus. "This is the time to teach kids about personal accountability and abstinence education. As it looks from this conference, the CDC is not grabbing that opportunity and taking it.≤ Klepacki said not only is the abstinence-until-marriage message left out of the discussion at these conferences, the topic is often mocked by experts at the CDC.

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said bad public policy is to blame for the STI epidemic. "Current public health policies are clearly failing to reduce the spread of STDs among young women," she said. "Public health officials need to admit their failures that have led to kids paying the price. Funding irresponsible sex-ed programs, ones that encourage kids to be sexually active, 12 times higher than funding abstinence programs, unsurprisingly results in more kids being sexually active." – E.P. News