Family Planning Advocates CEO T. Brooks meets with D.C. lawmakers on National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

ALBANY, NY (05/05/2009)(readMedia)-- On the eve of the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Family Planning Advocates of New York State (FPA) President and CEO Tracey Brooks has traveled to Washington, D.C. in support of comprehensive sex education. Tomorrow and later in the week, Brooks will meet with U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and a number of the New York State Congressional delegation including newly elected Congressman Scott Murphy representing the 20th district. She'll urge them to use former abstinence-only funding for age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education to reduce the alarming rate of unintended teen pregnancies in this country.

"Teens deserve honest, accurate, age-appropriate information about how to protect themselves," said Brooks. "They need sex education that provides information about healthy communication and responsible decision making, as well as abstinence and contraception as ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections."

The change in the political landscape in Albany and Washington, D.C. provides the state and nation an opportunity to reverse the trend of rising pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates. "Providing teens and young people with the information they need to make responsible decisions is the commonsense solution to reducing unintended teen pregnancy," said Brooks. Numerous studies have analyzed abstinence-only programs and found them to be ineffective.

"I have every reason to believe that Senator Gillibrand and Congressman Murphy will work with their colleagues in Congress to redirect much of the $126 million previously spent annually on ineffective abstinence-only programs toward comprehensive sex education," she said. "I will offer Family Planning Advocates' support and that of our Planned Parenthood members and other family planning health centers around New York State to help make this happen."

President Barack Obama has consistently supported comprehensive and age-appropriate sex education. As a senator, President Obama was an original co-sponsor of the Prevention First Act, which would ensure that all taxpayer-funded federal programs are medically accurate and include information about contraception.

A study conducted by the University of Washington found that teens who had comprehensive sex education were 50 percent less likely to become pregnant than teens who had no sex education or who were in abstinence-only programs. A study by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reports that two-thirds of the examined sex education programs that focus on both abstinence and contraception had a positive effect on teen sexual behavior. And a 2008 Guttmacher Institute report found that most abstinence programs did not delay initiation of sexual activity.

For more information, see: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Family Planning Advocates of New York State is a non-profit, statewide organization dedicated to protecting and expanding access to a full range of reproductive health care services. It represents New York's Planned Parenthood affiliates and other family planning centers, as well as hundreds of organizations and thousands of individual members.

www.womenshealthmattersny.org

www.fpaofnys.org