Today is the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and abortion rates are at their lowest point in 42 years.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, with 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women, abortion rates are almost as low as they were 1973 at 16.3 per 1,000 women.
Researchers at Guttmacher Institute suggested the lower abortion rates were due to an increase in birth control access. 
Comprehensive sexual education also may be an important factor in low abortion rates. Unfortunately, however, there are 28 states, including Louisiana, that don’t currently mandate sexual education. 
States like Louisiana prefer to promote abstinence instead of teaching teenagers about birth control or condoms.
Yes, the most effective way to avoid pregnancy is by not having sex, but abstinence-only education doesn’t work. A lack of exhaustive sex ed could increase teen pregnancy rates and reverse the current downward trend in abortion if we don’t change our laws.
At 69 pregnancies per 1,000 women, Louisiana already has the fifth-highest teen pregnancy rate in America. 
Why is it that a state like Louisiana, arguably one of the most religious states in the country, also has an incredibly high pregnancy rate for teenagers? 
It’s because Christian fundamentalists like our Gov. Bobby Jindal don’t like to teach teenagers about safe sex. He even signed a bill last year that limited the types of information Planned Parenthood can give students.
Because Louisiana’s leaders think it is inappropriate, students stay ignorant about safe sex.
Fundamentalists, have you ever heard of the Internet? It is filled with porn, and everyone watches it. Even your 14-year-old sons and daughters.
Your children know what sex is. When you’re not looking, they try out the acts they see in porn. They talk about it, they read about it and they’re probably doing it right now. But because the Internet isn’t always reliable, they’re most likely having sex that isn’t safe.
They’re having sex without condoms because they think pulling out will work just as well. They’re not on birth control because they don’t want their parents to know they’re having sex, and they can’t afford the pill on their own.
This risky behavior increases their chances of STDs, AIDS and getting pregnant.
Teaching abstinence doesn’t make the urges go away. It just makes teenagers ashamed to ask for birth control or condoms. They’ll still have sex, and it’ll be unprotected. And they’ll still feel guilty for doing it.
When teenagers inevitably have sex, people like our governor want to blame them for getting pregnant in the first place.
Yes, having sex can lead to a baby, but should we really blame them for doing something everyone does?
By that logic, we should force everyone to adopt a baby every time they have sex. Sex creates life, after all, so they were obviously trying to get pregnant.
Maybe abortion isn’t the right answer, or maybe it is. But we wouldn’t even need to talk about that if we would make birth control and sex education available to everyone. Students have a right to know how to use a condom properly or the different methods of birth control. That’s what our sex ed programs should be teaching.
Cody Sibley is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Opelousas, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @CodySibley.