Sex education laws and policies.

Sex education laws and policies are important in facilitating or blocking efforts to provide adolescents with sexuality education and information. Legislation in developing and industrialized countries concerns both sexuality education in schools and adolescents' access to information on contraception and abortion. Although laws and policies vary, the trend is to remove laws restricting sex education and information and to promote the flow of reproductive health information for adolescents. The integration of sex education with programs that provide contraceptive services offers the promise of preventing unwanted pregnancy in adolescents, with its all too frequent tragic health and social consequences.