Sex Education
Honest, age-appropriate, and medically accurate sex education provides young people with the information they need to protect themselves. Comprehensive sex education encourages abstinence while also teaching students the facts about how to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has decided to fund restrictive, abstinence-only-until-marriage sex ed programs as opposed to those that teach kids the truth about contraception and prevention of STDs. In Washington we successfully passed the Healthy Youth Act which requires that any sex education taught in public schools must adhere to a set of basic standards including that it be medically accurate. Below, you can read more about the Healthy Youth Act, the guidelines set forth by The Department of Health and Office of the Superintendent as well as additional information on abstinence-only education. The Healthy Youth Act will go into effect September 2008. Dino Rossi, Republican candidate for governor, supports abstinence-only education, as does Rep. Dave Reichert, who is running against pro-choice candidate Darcy Burner in the 8th district. Pro-choice legislators have been tremendously successful in protecting reproductive rights and comprehensive sex education in Washington, and we need to insure that more gain office in the coming election! Currently, Washington State law requires our Department of Health to apply for Title V abstinence-only funding. These federal funds come tied to restrictions requiring that the money be used to teach abstinence only - to the exclusion of medically accurate information about contraception and disease prevention. These restrictions conflict with our state’s new law, Healthy Youth Act, passed last year. Over 300 pro-choice activists converged on Olympia to lobby for the Healthy Youth Act!
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