Sex Education

Sex education, when it is expansive, medically accurate and empowering rather than shameful, reduces the threat of STDs and unplanned pregnancies for teens. It also can teach teens about dating violence, consent and substance abuse. Sex education varies wildly across state lines because of the influence of anti-abortion, sex-negative politics.

Thousands of U.S. Women Are Killed Each Year. Where’s the Outrage?

A spate of 11 femicides in Italy so far this year is making global headlines and prompting calls for “cultural rebellion.”  Yet femicide is far worse in the U.S., claiming thousands of lives a year, and comparatively normalized. It’s where the cultural pushback is needed most.

Last month, the U.N.’s annual two-week Conference on the Status of Women wrapped up in New York, having barely addressed growing threats of gender-based violence and without acknowledging the elephant in the room: how Trump administration policy swerves threaten to undo decades of progress for women, including women in the U.S.

Explainer: How Does Family Planning Save Lives?

When a war forcibly displaces tens of thousands of people, UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, equips displacement camps and medical personnel with critical supplies—including condoms, oral and injectable contraceptives, contraceptives implants and intrauterine devices. 

When an earthquake tumbles whole city blocks, UNFPA puts contraceptives onto emergency relief convoys, alongside kits for delivering babies and medicines to stop internal bleeding.

When a cyclone slashes through remote island communities, UNFPA sends contraceptives just as it sends sterile medical equipment.

Why? Because contraceptives are part of life-saving humanitarian care.

Montana’s Latest Anti-Trans Bill Has Disturbing Parallels With 19th-Century Eugenics Laws

HB 446 is just one of a new generation of social purity laws being presented across the country, using fears of “social contagion” from over a century ago that still ring true for many Americans.

Understanding this history is vital to unpacking the danger—often connected growing white supremacist movements—of these laws and the social fears they represent. 

The Fight Against Cervical Cancer and for the HPV Vaccine 

As a community-based researcher, I’ve spent countless hours speaking with women in the Mississippi Delta about their experiences with healthcare, their knowledge of cervical cancer prevention and the barriers they face in accessing care. These conversations have reinforced what we already know: Black women in Mississippi are dying from preventable diseases—not because solutions don’t exist, but because those solutions are not reaching them. The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative (SRBWI), in collaboration with Human Rights Watch, recently released a report highlighting these inequities.

But while we work to increase awareness, figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continue to spread dangerous misinformation about the HPV vaccine, undermining efforts to protect our communities.

What My All-Male Students Could Teach the President About Sex and Empathy

I teach gender studies at Wabash, an all-male college. Our elective introductory course is always waitlisted. The students, mostly from the Midwest where sex ed is virtually nonexistent in public schools, are eager to study the biology and sociology of sex.

Most of my students know nothing about sex ed when they enter my class. But too many men like them—without knowledge about chromosomal sex, hormonal sex, gonadal sex, or intersex conditions—go on to legislate human bodies, define what is “natural,” and punish doctors who professionally advise patients on the best healthcare options for their well-being.

New York Times’ Shameful Reporting on Planned Parenthood Bolsters Right-Wing Attacks on Reproductive Healthcare Access

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The New York Times recently published a 3,000-word investigative report claiming to have found “scores of allegations” against Planned Parenthood for misconduct, medical malpractice, mismanagement and labor violations. Released within a month of Trump’s inauguration, the article appears timed to provide ammunition for the ongoing right-wing attack on reproductive rights. 

The NYT could have invested its significant resources into investigating how Planned Parenthood plays a unique and irreplaceable role in the U.S. healthcare system as the nation’s leading provider of sexual and reproductive healthcare and largest sex educator. By choosing to publish what reads as a hit job on Planned Parenthood at this political moment, while failing to devote any resources to investigating the opaque and unregulated antiabortion industry vying to defund and replace Planned Parenthood, the NYT has done a grave disservice to readers, especially women and girls who need reproductive healthcare.

Why We Need to Prioritize Pleasure-Centric Approaches in Sex Education

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With a new school year in full swing and elections around the corner, it’s only normal that we’re feeling anxious about what could happen this fall. This is especially true for young people, whose sexual and reproductive freedom hangs in the balance as we face abortion bans, attacks on trans care, birth control and more. But what’s a better antidote for anxiety, than empowering youth with pleasure-centric tools and resources that allow them to reclaim control of their bodily autonomy?

By centering peer-to-peer conversations on what makes us feel good—physically, mentally and emotionally—we establish a culture where joy, freedom and autonomy are prioritized and healthier schools, communities and relationships are created.  

Florida Just Banned Sex Ed in Public Schools. Project 2025 Calls for the Same Ban *Nationwide.*

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If you don’t live in Florida, you may be inclined to distance yourself from the news that they just banned public school districts from teaching sex education—including lessons on consent, HIV transmission, abuse prevention, and the existence of LGBTQ+ people.

But this is not a “Florida problem”—it’s a national preview. Because Project 2025 calls for a federal ban on sex education too. It’s just hidden, snuck in as part of their ban on pornography.