Is Teen Sex "Morally Unacceptable?" The Answer Could Be More Dangerous Than You Know

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This week, Gallup polling revealed our country’s moral compass — or so they seem to believe. The polling organization released its annual report on what Americans state is or is not morally acceptable behavior, with actions ranging from homosexual activity to suicide to medical testing on animals. Based on the responses and comparing those to previous years, Gallup believes it has the quintessential answers to what we believe is moral in this country, including the fact that most people think sex between teenagers is wrong.

In reality, they have proven nothing of the sort.

There are a number of reason why Gallup stating that only 30 percent of Americans find teens having sex “morally acceptable” is not just wrong, but harmful, too. To begin with, Gallup’s question itself is worded so ambiguously it allows the person answering nearly unlimited power to determine what the question really means. A respondent may have completely different answers when asked if it is morally acceptable for two 18-year-olds to have sex (both teens officially adults and of age) than he or she would be if the question involved a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old, or a 15 and a 19-year-old, which is some states may not even be legal.

Even more likely to change how a person responds to the question would be the set of questions that proceeded it. In the details of their polling, Gallup shows all of the different issues they questioned whether a person believes is “morally acceptable” or not, and stated that they shuffled the order in which the topics were presented. Based on other issues a person might feel is a moral wrong, teen sex could be tainted by those other topics simply by being mentioned soon after. After all, teen sex sounds a lot more sinister when you were just being questioned about polygamy and adulterous affairs than it does if you had just been asked about stem cell research and birth control.

The lackluster specificity in polling wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it weren’t for the outright dangerousness of the published results. With Gallup making sweeping generalizations that only 30 percent of Americans find teen sex “morally acceptable,” that blanket statement could do irreparable harm to teens themselves.

By polling on, and then publicizing, the “morality” of teen sex, Gallup and the media that report on its poll as if the results were legitimate continue to push healthy teen sexuality into the shadows. Those teens who are having sex, upon hearing their actions are considered “immoral” by the vast majority of the country, are liable not to stop having sex, but to do it in a secretive manner. That means without talking to trusted adults about their relationships, without using contraception and condoms to protect themselves from diseases, and without getting treatment or care when they do find themselves presenting with symptoms of STIs or pregnancy. That means more teens with untreated infections, more teens with potential pregnancies and more teens giving birth without proper prenatal care.

The claims of disapproval are dangerous also for the continuation of the conservative’s war against birth control, age appropriate sex education and sexual health care for minors. Republicans federally and in the states have already latched on to polling numbers for issues like abortion to bolster claims that because a portion of the public doesn’t support it, abortion limits need to be created, especially when it comes to public finance and access. There is little doubt that those same politicians would be more than willing to add “70 percent of Americans think teens having sex is not morally acceptable” to their arsenal when it comes to proposing new bills to ban funding of Planned Parenthood, condemn programs that allow teens to get pregnancy tests, prenatal care, birth control and STI treatments without parental notification and, even more likely, push for more taxpayer dollars into funding for failing abstinence only education programs.

“Morally acceptable” is already a loose frame that has endless definitions to nearly everyone, and Gallup’s polling question was ambiguous at best. The numbers themselves are meritless, but in the wrong hands, they could actually be dangerous for today’s teens.

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