Accessing Sex Ed 

December 10, 2025

Accessing your fundamental human right to comprehensive sexual education should not depend on where you live. And yet, it absolutely does. As Nadra Nittle reports, recent research from the national nonprofit organization SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change is driving this point home. Analyzing the wide variety of sex ed policies throughout the U.S., SIECUS issued “2025 State Report Cards” to measure the significant differences, state by state.

Just how far are states falling short to protecting young residents’ full right to access sex ed – that is, the “gold standard” of comprehensive, medically accurate, and LGBTQ+ inclusive information? In grade-speak, most states received Cs, Ds, and Fs for censoring some or all sex ed topics – including by simply offering no sex ed at all, or solely implementing abstinence-only curricula. Only the District of Columbia and six states (California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington) earned As. That is, the majority of states are struggling with regard to protecting residents’ human rights. A pitiful number of states are doing well with offering “robust, inclusive and scientifically sound” sex ed.

Nittle writes that lawmakers are offering young people different futures, depending on where they live: “one where they enjoy safety, bodily autonomy and healthy relationships or one where they are vulnerable to coercion, infections and misinformation.” We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation wholeheartedly agree with Nittle’s observation – and we strongly believe that all young people should experience the freedom and safety of those living in District of Columbia, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.