State laws sex

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC survey indicates that nearly 40 percent of all high school students report they have had sex, and 9. Among students who had sex in the three months prior to the survey, 54 percent reported condom use and 30 percent reported using birth control pills, an intrauterine device IUD , implant, shot or ring during their last sexual encounter. The birth rate for women aged years was According to CDC, reasons for the decline are not entirely clear, but evidence points to a higher number of teens abstaining from sexual activity and an increased use of birth control in teens who are sexually active. Though the teen birth rate has declined to its lowest levels since data collection began, the United States still has the highest teen birth rate in the industrialized world.

In the United States, age of consent laws regarding sexual activity are made at the state level. There are several federal statutes related to protecting minors from sexual predators, but laws regarding specific age requirements for sexual consent are left to individual states , District of Columbia , and territories. Depending on the jurisdiction, the legal age of consent is between 16 and In some places, civil and criminal laws within the same state conflict with each other.

Washington law RCW Washington law Chapter 9A. These situations include coercion or compulsion; mental incapacity or physical helplessness; and differences in age or authority. Sections of Chapter 9A.

Create a customized report that compares state laws on some or all of the topics we track. There are a number of factors that determine if a person legally consents, from their age to whether they're incapacitated. Learn about consent in your state.