Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) commented on the need for comprehensive sex education programs after the release of a study yesterday indicating that 2006 was the first year since 1990 where teen pregnancy rates rose in the US. The Guttmacher Institute report (see PDF), also found that teenage abortion rates rose by about 1 percent from 2005 to 2006. Slaughter said in a press release. “A decade of abstinence only education, costing $1.5 billion, has clearly gotten us nowhere. When teenage childbearing costs the taxpayers billions of dollars a year, how can anyone honestly advocate for pouring more money into abstinence only education programs that just do not work? We need common sense, medically accurate, sexuality education programs to combat this alarming rise in teen pregnancy rates.” Slaughter is the lead sponsor of the Prevention First Act in the House. The bill aims to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by increasing funding for Title X, expanding Medicaid family planning services, ending insurance discrimination against women, improving awareness of emergency contraception, providing compassionate assistance for victims of rape, reducing teen pregnancy rates, and ensuring that Federal programs provide medically accurate sex education information. This legislation has been repeatedly introduced in previous legislative sessions both in the Senate and the House.
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