Group suggests strategy to curb Arkansas' teen pregnancy rate

A new report calls for Arkansas to improve sex education policies as a way to decrease teen births and lower the child-poverty rate.

Why it matters: Arkansas teens are giving birth at a lower rate than in years past; yet, as of 2022, the state ranks second-highest in the U.S., according to the National Center for Health Statistics .

More than 24 of every 1,000 Arkansas females ages 15-19 had a child that year. That's nearly double the U.S. rate of 13.5.

Driving the news: Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) published the document last week.

State of play: The state doesn't mandate sex education, leaving it up to each school district — with input from its board and the public — to decide whether to teach it.

• The most notable directive in Arkansas code states that any sex education "shall emphasize premarital abstinence as the only sure means" to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The big picture: Comprehensive sex education is shown to reduce sexual activity, number of partners and frequency of unprotected sex, while growing the use of condoms and other contraceptives.

Reality check: The state's not likely to implement comprehensive sex ed in the next couple of years, Olivia Gardner, director of education policy for AACF, told Axios. What they propose: The report outlines several steps that are likely achievable within the state's current political environment, as well as some midrange and longer-range objectives, she said.

• Collecting data on what education is offered and where is a first step, Gardner said.
• "In the middle … we have more approaches, like creating new requirements with the Arkansas Department of Education to try to improve the current school-based, sexual-health education policies."
• The end goal is a comprehensive sex education system, she said.

The report also points out that requiring sex ed to be "be both medically accurate and evidence-based … could be a middle-of-the-road approach that could be implemented without removing the state's abstinence-only requirement."

What they're saying: Gardner talks of "a continuum of sex education that begins in the early years, perhaps with child abuse prevention training for young children."

• "We're really talking about a system that educates students in a developmentally appropriate way all throughout their school years," she said.

What's next: Gardner plans to begin researching the current landscape of sex ed in Arkansas schools.

Go deeper: Democrats push for sex education in schools