Teens Say They Need the Facts When it Comes to Sex Education

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting today that a Student Advisory Council (which was state-appointed and is made up of teens from across Illinois) recommended to a State Board of Education committee that all Illinois public high schools be required to teach sex education.

The students also recommended that sex education programs include comprehensive sexual health information, as they feel that abstinence-only programs alone fail to provide the necessary information teens need to be safe and healthy. Illinois does not currently require public schools to teach sex education, although if they do have a sex education program, they are required to focus on abstinence.

The conclusions of the Student Advisory Council are in line with a number of recent studies and alarming trends that beg for a comprehensive sex education approach - one that includes information on contraceptives and sexually-transmitted infections:

- In December 2007 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data showing that the teen birth rate for the nation as a whole increased for the first time in 15 years in 2006.

- In March 2008 a CDC study found that nearly 1 in 4 young women in the U.S. between the ages of 14 and 19 years old is infected with at least one sexually transmitted infection.

- According to one study, Illinois ranks eighth nationally among states with the largest number of new AIDS cases for 2006, accounting for 3.5% of the national total of new AIDS diagnoses.

About 750,000 teenagers in the U.S. will become pregnant this year alone and half of all sexually active people will have a sexually transmitted infection by age 25. TEENS NEED THE FACTS when it comes to sex and staying healthy. They're asking for the truth, and they deserve it.


Technorati tags: Planned Parenthood of Illinois, sex education, STDs, teen pregnancy

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Today marks the eighth annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In recognition of the day, Planned Parenthood of Illinois called for public funding of comprehensive, medically-accurate sex education programs to reduce the alarming rate of unintended teen pregnancies in the U.S.

“Teens deserve honest, accurate, age-appropriate information about how to protect themselves,” said Steve Trombley, PPIL President & CEO. “They need sex education that provides information about healthy communication, responsible decision making, as well as abstinence and contraception as ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.”

The U.S. teen birthrate increased for the second year in a row, according to data released in March by the CDC National Center for Health Statistics. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reports the U.S. has the highest rates of teen pregnancy among comparable countries. An estimated 750,000 American teens become pregnant each year. Approximately 37,000 of these teens are from Illinois.

“The reality is that by their 18th birthday, six in 10 teenage women and more than five in 10 teenage men have had sex,” explained Trombley. “That is why PPIL is constantly working towards providing Illinois teens with the information and services they need to make healthy decisions. Our peer education program in particular has played an integral part in helping us achieve our goal of preventing unintended pregnancy and disease through comprehensive sexual health education.”

In addition to peer education programs (which include 52 peer educators who reach over 15,000 young people and adults with medically accurate sex education each year), PPIL is also working to expand access to comprehensive sexual health education with a broad coalition of organizations as part of the Campaign for Reproductive Health and Access. The campaign seeks passage of legislation that would ensure, among other things, that all Illinois public schools teach medically accurate, age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education.

For more information, visit The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Technorati tags: Planned Parenthood of Illinois, teen pregnancy, sex education