Comprehensive sex education

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Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is a sex education instruction method based on a curriculum that aims to give students the holistic knowledge, attitudes, skills, and values to make healthy and informed choices in their sexual lives. The intention is that this understanding will help students understand their body and reproductive processes, engage in safer sex by reduce incidents of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV and HPV, reduce unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, as well as lowering rates of domestic and sexual violence.^[1]

CSE curricula covers a wide range of topics relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Curriculums regarding sexual behavior differs based on the audience, but typically includes age-appropriate information^[2] on puberty, adolescence, sexual intercourse, and age of consent. This includes promoting safe sexual behaviors, such as using correct birth control and contraception, communicating with partners, and seeking testing for STIs. Additionally, CSE curricula may discuss pregnancy outcomes such as maternal health, parenting, adoption, and abortion. CSE curricula are now also giving importance to including information sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Some states have introduced bills that would require all pre-existing sex education curricula in public schools to be fully comprehensive and inclusive. The most widely agreed benefit of using comprehensive sexuality education over abstinence-only sex education is that CSE acknowledges that young people will be sexually active in their future. By acknowledging this, CSE can encourage students to plan ahead to make the healthiest possible sexual decisions. This ideology of preparing students for safe future sexual experiences underlies the majority of topics within CSE, including various methods of contraception and refusal skills.