Yes , less teenagers are getting pregnant now than in the 40 s . Yes you are correct . But , while the rate of birth has declined , the proportion of births to unwed mothers has risen inversely to the decline of overall births . So while we have less teens having children overall , the majority of those teens are having children outside of marriage . The issue isn ' t that teenagers are having children , it is the risky choices to have children you are unable to support and outside the committed support inherent to the family unit . Abstinence education focuses on the importance of when to have sex , birth control education focuses on how to protect yourself when sex occurs . Instruction of the How birth control is fairly simple and can be adequately covered in most health classes . When abstinence to have sex is not a simple technical discussion , and the schools are not , and will likely never be capable of adequately imparting that knowledge . Sexual education needs to shift its focus from the How , to the When .