Governor Gregoire Signs SB 5629 in Support of Comprehensive Sex Education
OLYMPIA, WA – This morning Gov. Chris Gregoire signed SB 5629, requiring any funding the state seeks for sexual health education to be for programs that are effective, medically accurate and proven to work. “This law helps ensure that we spend our resources wisely,” said Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. “The legislature and the Governor did the right thing and stopped throwing money away on dangerous and ineffective abstinence-only programs that have done nothing to curb rising teen pregnancy rates.” “Considering the cuts to birth control and family planning spending in the state and local budgets, providing our young people with real, honest sexual health education is a more and more important means to preventing unintended pregnancy,” Cooper added. SB 5629 confirms the state's commitment, established by the 2007 Healthy Youth Act, to reducing unintended pregnancy and STDs and fixes an old law requiring Washington’s Department of Health to apply for disproven abstinence-only-until-marriage funding. The Healthy Youth Act, which went into effect in the fall of 2008, requires Washington public schools that teach sexual health education to use programs that are comprehensive and medically accurate (i.e. programs that include information about abstinence as well as contraception). Comprehensive sexual health education has been a long-term priority for NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. NARAL, along with coalition partners, played a central role in the passage of the Healthy Youth Act in 2007. During the 2009 session, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington activists sent over 2,000 contacts to their legislators in support of SB 5629. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is the leading grassroots pro-choice advocacy organization in Washington State. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington works to protect every woman’s right to access the full range of reproductive health options, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is the state affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America. ###
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