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Stop Rising Teen Birth Rates and STD Infections

Target: U.S. Congress
Sponsored by: NARAL Pro-Choice America

We're facing a teen-health crisis. One in four American girls has a sexually transmitted disease and the teen birth rate is up in 26 states.

What went wrong?

For years, the Bush administration funneled more than $1 billion taxpayer money to ineffective "abstinence-only" programs that censored information about birth control and contributed to our growing public-health crisis among teens.

The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act would establish the first-ever federal sex-education program. Unlike Bush's "abstinence-only" programs that censor, mislead and misinform teens, responsible sex education teaches young people about both abstinence and contraception and prevents unintended pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Urge your members of Congress to support this vital bill!

deadline: Ongoing...
goal: 20,000

15,592
signatures!

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Dear Congressmember [Name],

Federal funding for "abstinence-only" policy is a waste of taxpayer dollars and has contributed to - not lessened - a public-health crisis in which one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection.

Responsible sex-education programs, on the other hand, emphasize abstinence and contraception. Research shows that these programs delay initiation of sex, reduce its frequency and improve contraceptive use among teens. Leading experts universally endorse realistic, medically accurate, age-appropriate sex-education programs, not the failed "abstinence-only" approach. Also, public-opinion surveys show that parents overwhelmingly endorse this approach.

Once enacted, the REAL Act will begin to correct this egregious imbalance in federal policy by funding medically accurate sex education, instead of disproven and misleading "abstinence-only" programs. As your constituent, I strongly urge you to co-sponsor this legislation to ensure comprehensive sex education for young people.

[Your comments here]

Sincerely,
[Your name here]

We took action on “Stop Rising Teen Birth Rates and STD Infections”!

# 15,595:

12:33 am PST, Nov 8, Miguel Dias, New York

# 15,594:

12:12 pm PST, Nov 7, Gwen Hawtof, Florida

# 15,593:

3:54 pm PST, Nov 6, Jamie Martin, Pennsylvania

# 15,592:

6:42 am PST, Nov 4, Addys Delgado, Florida

# 15,591:

2:43 pm PDT, Oct 29, L Gols, Massachusetts

# 15,590:

7:36 pm PDT, Oct 28, Michael Westrich, Oregon

# 15,589:

5:59 pm PDT, Oct 28, Caitlin Schmedlin, Connecticut

# 15,588:

12:36 am PDT, Oct 28, Ivy M, California

# 15,587:

3:27 pm PDT, Oct 27, Marykay Cooper, Arizona

# 15,586:

8:46 pm PDT, Oct 25, Anita Anthony, Indiana
To stop so many teen pregnacies and STD's

# 15,585:

6:40 pm PDT, Oct 24, Trevolyn Haines, California

# 15,584:

12:10 pm PDT, Oct 24, Name not displayed, Illinois

# 15,583:

12:28 pm PDT, Oct 23, Claudia Walters, Colorado
Because teenage hormones and the desire to belong to someone or something tends to overshadow and trump the ideals of abstinence.

# 15,582:

10:20 pm PDT, Oct 20, Nilay Sheth, Maryland

# 15,581:

3:53 am PDT, Oct 20, Sharon Gowin, Arizona

# 15,580:

7:01 pm PDT, Oct 14, Marilyn Bernstein, Massachusetts

# 15,579:

4:22 pm PDT, Oct 14, Anne Kim, California

# 15,578:

3:03 pm PDT, Oct 14, Kyle S, New Jersey

# 15,577:

3:01 pm PDT, Oct 14, Tara Carlisle, Florida

# 15,576:

9:03 am PDT, Oct 14, Deanna Zimmerman, California

# 15,575:

3:40 pm PDT, Oct 12, Adriana Paverman, New York

# 15,574:

8:05 am PDT, Oct 11, Thomas Crahan, New York

# 15,573:

5:00 pm PDT, Oct 8, Jennifer Fossen, Colorado

# 15,572:

12:29 pm PDT, Oct 6, Linda Hurley, New York
Not having accurate information not only hurts teens by misleading them about the consequences of actions, and leaves them susceptible to disease, etc. It also makes them distrustful of the veracity of sources of information i.e. adult institutuions.

# 15,571:

6:42 am PDT, Oct 6, Amylynn Heiser, Illinois

# 15,570:

2:29 pm PDT, Oct 4, Name not displayed, Ohio

# 15,569:

6:08 pm PDT, Oct 3, Name not displayed, Puerto Rico

# 15,568:

7:02 am PDT, Oct 3, Tiffany Jackson, New York
abstinence-only is a waste of money we should be teaching teens how to use protection. They is nothing wrong with sex but if we only inform them on not having sex when they do they won't know how to protect themselves the right way.

# 15,567:

9:01 am PDT, Oct 2, Stacy Habr, Oregon

# 15,566:

9:49 pm PDT, Oct 1, Stephanie Lemon, Washington

# 15,565:

3:11 pm PDT, Oct 1, Pam DeLitta, Texas

# 15,564:

11:50 am PDT, Oct 1, Vincent Stalba, Florida

# 15,563:

3:27 pm PDT, Sep 29, Name not displayed, Texas

# 15,562:

11:34 am PDT, Sep 28, Loralee Blanchet, Minnesota
Teens are smarter than we give them credit for. Knowledge to make an informed decision is imparitive.

# 15,561:

9:43 am PDT, Sep 28, Amanda Fischer, Missouri

# 15,560:

7:15 am PDT, Sep 28, Andrea Johnson, Texas

# 15,559:

5:52 am PDT, Sep 27, Rebecca Monger, Massachusetts

# 15,558:

2:29 am PDT, Sep 27, David Topping, Malaysia
To ensure that they are accurately informed of the risks of unprotected sex, and how to prevent preganancy and disease. The abstinence programme cannot possibly achieve this. I am a father of three young girls and I want them to be well educated in these matters, and to feel that they can enter womanhood with confidence and without a psychologically danaging "sex is sin" mentality.

# 15,557:

12:59 am PDT, Sep 27, Jessica Rocheleau, Minnesota

# 15,556:

3:01 pm PDT, Sep 26, Lisa Provident, Pennsylvania

# 15,555:

8:39 am PDT, Sep 26, Kristin Noelle Russo, Michigan

# 15,554:

6:26 pm PDT, Sep 25, Emma Ward, Massachusetts

# 15,553:

6:51 pm PDT, Sep 24, Cori Elliott, Florida

# 15,552:

12:19 pm PDT, Sep 23, Name not displayed, California

# 15,551:

5:12 am PDT, Sep 22, Eli Is Here, Pennsylvania

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