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Take Action: Call your state legislators and tell them to STOP the repeal of the Healthy Youth Act
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In a fast-moving piece of legislation, Senators are using Governor Walker's special session on job creation to repeal the progress made after the passage of the 2009 Healthy Youth Act. The Healthy Youth Act raised the state standards for public school human growth and development instruction.
Call your state legislators and tell them to keep comprehensive sex ed for Wisconsin students and NOT to repeal the Healthy Youth Act. In Madison: 266-9960; Toll-free: 1-800-362-9472
OR
Attend the Senate Education Committee hearing on SB 237: Wednesday, noon, room 201SE (on Twitter? Follow our live tweets from the hearing @ACLUMadison)
This bill:
- removes information on the health benefits of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections as well as a requirement for schools to identify support for victims of sexual assault,
- requires schools to revert back to the proven failure of abstinence-until-marriage types of instruction,
- and even redefines what "medically accurate" and "age appropriate" means.
This bill is also very poorly timed. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel just reported last week that teen pregnancy rates have been declining since 2009. Not only does this piece of legislation not create a single job in our state, it deconstructs the model of comprehensive sex ed that is proven to help build the next generation of informed, healthy youth.Ask your legislator if this will help our state's economy or if it is simply a payback to the abstinence-only
We all know teens need information to make healthy and responsible decisions about sex. The comprehensive sexuality education model is based on evidence that when teens participate in school and community programs that stress both the importance of waiting to have sex while providing accurate, age-appropriate, medically accurate and complete information about the use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, teens delay sex and reduce sexual risk-taking.
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