M. Joycelyn Elders

About the author: M. Joycelyn Elders, U.S. Surgeon General from 1993 to 1994, is a pediatric endocrinologist and author.

America's children are being placed at risk for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) because parents and teachers are reluctant to discuss the use of condoms. Promoting abstinence as the only means of STD prevention is not appropriate for all youth, many of whom reach puberty—and become aware of sexual feelings —at a relatively young age. Classroom abstinence education is also of little use to teen females who are sexually abused by older men. The United States must follow the example of other nations and provide young people with both comprehensive sex education and condoms to protect them from STDs.

These days we confuse ignorance...