NARAL Pro-Choice New York Urges New York State Senate to Pass the Healthy Teens Act
June 11, 2008 Contact: Mary Alice Carr 646-326-4238 NARAL Pro-Choice New York Urges New York State Senate to Pass the Healthy Teens Act Today NARAL Pro-Choice New York, the reproductive rights and health advocacy group, joined with other leading advocacy organizations to urge the New York State Senate to pass the Healthy Teens Act (S1342 Winner/A2856 Gottfried). The Healthy Teens Act will set up a funding base that will allow school districts, BOCES, school-based health centers and community-based organizations to apply for grants to create and implement programs that will give New York students comprehensive, medically accurate, and age appropriate information regarding sexual health and well being. New York currently has no designated funding for comprehensive sex education in our schools, although New York’s rates of unintended teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are among the highest in the country. First introduced in 2004, the Healthy Teens Act has passed the New York State Assembly with bi-partisan support each year but has not received a floor vote from the State Senate. Kelli Conlin, President of NARAL Pro-Choice New York stated, “The Healthy Teens Act was first proposed in 2004. In the four years that the Republican-led New York State Senate has failed to act on this bill, students have entered our high schools as freshman and are now poised to graduate as seniors without receiving comprehensive and life saving instruction. This is a travesty in a state that ranks amongst the highest in the nation in both teenage pregnancy rates and rates of sexually transmitted infections. We have the ability and the tools to reverse this trend by passing the Healthy Teens Act without further delay. The Senate leadership, led by Senator Joe Bruno, can and must act now.”
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