House bill 999: Adoption and implementation of state-mandated abstinence-only or comprehensive sex education curriculum in Mississippi public schools

Background: At 64.1 births per 1,000 teens ages 15-19 years old, Mississippi has the highest teen birth rate in the US, as well as the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea among US teens. Such findings are cause for growing public health concern as teen pregnancy and associated risk behaviors negatively impact Mississippi teens, particularly African American youth. In 2011, Mississippi legislators passed House Bill 999, a dual-option (abstinence-only or abstinence-plus) sex education bill that mandated that: 1) all public school boards adopt a ‘sex-related education' policy by June 2012; and 2) all public school districts implement an abstinence-only program or comprehensive sex ed (abstinence-plus) program for the 2012-2013 school year. Methods: In order to examine adoption and implementation of House Bill 999, we conducted a policy scan of national and state policy briefs, reports, peer-reviewed articles, news articles, and online resources from leading sources, including the CDC, Center for Mississippi Health Policy, Mississippi State Department of Health, SIECUS, and the Women's Fund of Mississippi. Results: Although a state-wide randomized survey of Mississippi parents (N=3,600) found that 92.1% supported age-appropriate sex ed in public schools and 61% said that sex ed should begin in middle school, only 71 school districts adopted abstinence-plus programs, while 3 adopted abstinence-only programs for younger grades and abstinence-plus programs for older grades. In contrast, 81 school districts adopted abstinence-only programs. Conclusions: Supplementing abstinence-promoting skills with instruction/demonstrations of correct contraceptive use is critical to reducing teen pregnancy and STI transmission among sexually active Mississippi youth.