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State Senate should pass Healthy Teens Act

   I am first and foremost, in my life, a mother. I have a job that I love in a fi eld I am passionate about, but the primary focus in my life has always been, and always will be my children. So when I say that it is shameful that New York does not provide comprehensive sex education to our youth, it is not just as a public health advocate, but as a mother.
   It is one thing to know the teenage pregnancy rate in New York state is 62 per 1,000. It is another thing to absorb those statistics and think of the individuals behind them. Think of the teenage girl facing an unintended pregnancy and an uncertain future. Think of the teenage boy looking fatherhood square in the face.
   Research shows that young people who receive comprehensive sex education become sexually active later in life and when they do become sexually active they have fewer sexual partners, fewer unintended pregnancies and lower rates of sexually transmitted infections. They are also more likely to discuss these issues with their parents, opening up communication at home.
   The state Assembly has passed the Healthy Teens Act three years in a row, but the Senate has yet to bring the bill for a full vote.
   The bill will provide funding for schools and community organizations to provide comprehensive sex education. This means that in addition to discussing the benefits of abstinence, youth will also be given information about birth control and sexually transmitted infections.
   It is time for the Senate to have a dialogue — on the floor of the Senate — about providing young people with age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education. Once this discussion has taken place, there is no doubt in my mind that the Senate will pass the Healthy Teens Act.
   JOANN M. SMITH
   Albany
The writer is president and CEO of Family Planning  

  
  
  

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Quoted Text
State Senate should pass Healthy Teens Act

   I am first and foremost, in my life, a mother. I have a job that I love in a field I am passionate about, but the primary focus in my life has always been, and always will be my children. So when I say that it is shameful that New York does not provide comprehensive sex education to our youth, it is not just as a public health advocate, but as a mother.
   JOANN M. SMITH
   Albany
The writer is president and CEO of Family Planning  

Well Ms.Smith, how about this: "It is shamfeful that PARENTS do not provide comprehensive sex education to their children". What do you want, the government to wipe their noses and a**es as well? Where is her line between parental responsibility and government control? And to think that she looks upon our corrupt, power driven, deal making government as the BEST choice on raising children. But of course she also has her own agenda...she is the CEO of Family Planning.

Thank you very much, bumble.  I completely agree.

It seems Ms Smith wants the government to raise her kids instead of putting the effort into educating them herself as a parent. I should think that people would want to teach their kids themselves because then you know what they're learning is the truth and not just a bunch of BS.

Isn't that why we have libraries???? Did she or her kids ever go to one??......Does she really think it is so dry a topic as that??.......

Just show a little film of 2kids meeting under the bleechers....and the act (with blankets of course)...and fast forward 9months to birth and baby/ or fast forward 12 weeks to abortion including procedure.......fast forward 2years and show father working with garnished wages......

Off to the side could be the nice little 'dry' scenario of sperm seeking ovum.......

Yup....the drive for sex is there....let's see who wins out---the animal or the cognitive rational brain.......

Well, first of all, in todays very 'complex' society when it comes to sex, I would think that each parent would want to instill their own sexual/moral values on their children. Well, there ya have it...I said the word....MORALS!  The political correct word is 'values'. Once you use the word MORALS, you just might be crossing over the line to that dreaded subject of religion!  But whether we like it or  not...sexuality comes in many different forms. They always did, since the beginning of time, but now they are not only 'out there'...they are accepted and commercialized.

So keeping religion out of it...who's 'sexuality' will be taught to the kids by the government. Well let's see...will it be heterosexual, homosexual, before 13yrs old, after 16 yrs old, having one partner, having multiple partners, with a condom, without a condom, with birth control pills, without birth control pills, an abortion before the first trimester, an abortion after the first trimester etc.....

I have my own personal beliefs on the subject and they are spiritually based...but they are 'mine'. And I would not infringe 'my' beliefs on anyone else just like I would hope they would not infring theirs on me. So come on people and teach your own kids about sexuality or any other subject matter that holds your values and teach them personal responsibilty backed up by respect for self and others.

OKAY...I'm off my soap box now!

The word they use is 'safe sex'----which pretty much is a farce.......how about just showing the consequences then after seeing ALL the issues of the consequences(this should take 40min week for the entire school year) even if it means a reality show of what happened to Sally and Bobby after the baby,,,,it only takes 5 minutes to learn how to use a condom or swallow a pill..........

Quoted from bumblethru

Well Ms.Smith, how about this: "It is shamfeful that PARENTS do not provide comprehensive sex education to their children". What do you want, the government to wipe their noses and a**es as well? Where is her line between parental responsibility and government control? And to think that she looks upon our corrupt, power driven, deal making government as the BEST choice on raising children. But of course she also has her own agenda...she is the CEO of Family Planning.

Sex education should be tought  along with health education and physical education.  Moral and ethical perspective needs to be added by parents-

Its a pity and a shame that most topics  or issues in this forum adressing  sex - pregnancy never get much of a reponse from females-

I am a female. First I don't think it should be called "Sex Education". It should be called "How to have sex". That is actually what the schools teach. In the 1960s and 1970s, liberal educators developed a new curriculum based on student choices. Known today as "comprehensive" sex education. Stating:Sex may be pleasurable but can be dangerous; so if you decide to have sex, minimize the dangers. That is, use protection.
I'm sure we all know that no one really had to tell anyone "how" to have sex. We figured it out. When I was in school,(quite a while ago ) we didn't have Sex Education, and ONE girl became pregnant. Today we read, in the gazette, that 16 sophomores, in one school, are pregnant.

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Mayor: No basis
for claim of
pregnancy pact
    GLOUCESTER, Mass. — School counselors, teachers and families of students a principal said made a pact to get pregnant and have babies have offered no confirmation to back the claim, the mayor of Gloucester said Sunday.
    Mayor Carolyn Kirk plans to meet today with school, health and other local officials after Gloucester High School Principal Joseph Sullivan was quoted by Time magazine saying the teen mothers made such a pact.
    The meeting will discuss the alarming rate of teen pregnancy. Seventeen girls in the high school became pregnant this year — four times the usual number. The girls are all 16 or younger, and nearly all of them sophomores.
    Kirk told The Associated Press that Sullivan has told officials in this hard-luck New England fishing town that he can’t remember his source of information.
    “The high school principal is the one who initially said it, and no one else has said it,” Kirk said. “None of the counselors at the school, none of the teachers who know these children and none of the families have spoken about it.”

Second, being a conservative, the role of government is  not to spend tax dollars on so called sex education. $176 Million dollars in federal tax dollars are spent yearly on "abstinence only" programs. And that is not including the mandated comprehensive sex education being taught in schools today. In 2002, the federal and state governments spent about $1.73 billion on a wide variety of contraception promotion and pregnancy prevention programs. More than a third of that money ($653 million) was spent specifically to fund contraceptive programs for teens. This should not be the role of government.

The who, how, what and when's to have sex should be encompassed in personal family, ethnic culture and religion being reinforced with personal responsibility and accountability. And in a culture that promotes and commercializes sex at almost every level, it appears that we are throwing our tax dollars to the wind.

And that is my female point of view.

We had "health" class in school where they touched on sex education.  Not very well, but they did it anyway.  Without getting into an in depth discussion on who's job it is to teach kids about the consquences of sex I will tell you what the bottom line was for me.........MY FATHER WOULD HAVE KICKED MY A#S!!!! Then even more devastating to me would have been the whole "I'm very disappointed in you lecture."  That was pretty much all I needed to know about whether or not to have sex as a teenager.  

My dad was a strict Italian. Need I say more?

Its really not something you can put into words, it was just knowing how your father would have reacted to something like that happening to their daughter. It wasn't so much fear or anything like that but it was simply unacceptable.  Kind of in the same way my father can still make me feel like I'm a 4th grader even now.  Not a thing in the world wrong with it if you ask me.  

Quoted from Rene

Its really not something you can put into words, it was just knowing how your father would have reacted to something like that happening to their daughter. It wasn't so much fear or anything like that but it was simply unacceptable.  Kind of in the same way my father can still make me feel like I'm a 4th grader even now.  Not a thing in the world wrong with it if you ask me.  

A daughter  should expect kindness and compassion from their father -

Everyone learns to live and love within thier family structure- and we take that paradigm with us in life.  My dad is an Italian Catholic Marine-  My brothers and sisters  learned that  " Pain is weakness leaving your body " - great
Parents  might consider  going back to school and learn how  to teach thier children health/sex ed but hey- how about physical education and drivers ed. while their at it ?

Biology-----need I say more......

People do what people do......responsibility and accountability does not come from 'sex edumacation'..........

We are missing the 'will to do right' because we cant call a damn thing wrong......there is no plumb line.......is our vision blurry sure....but if there is a plumb line to grab in a storm we have a better chance, hope or whatever we want to call it........

Somebody, I did not need to "expect" kindness and compassion from my father. I received it every single day and still do, but there was, is, and should be, an unwritten line in the sand that one does not cross.  I never became pregnant as a teenager and will never know if that would have been the line, but my respect and desire for his respect probably had alot to do with it.  Way too philosophical don't you think?

I think you got it right Rene when you said "respect". It was out of respect for both my parents and the desire to not want to disappoint them. Well and a little fear too!

UN charter/constitution is/are the new Bible.........Maybe that's why the Vatican has a vote, they certainly have all the 'right' rules well enforced for kids and adults alike.......I wonder if they can remotely touch the issues at the polygamist camp or the teen pregnancies in Mass.......

As for the teen pregnancies in Mass.....are the numbers shocking only because they are still in school.....'cause I gotta tell ya,,,,with my small public edumacation,,,,,,schenectady has alot of teen pregnancies---certainly more than 17......

where do the stats come from?? does it only 'matter' when they are still attending school? what about if they 'quit' and then get pregnant?

I'm not sure I see where handing out condoms or birthcontrol 'saves' them-----

if p then q---nah, we're not that simple.......

Quoted from Sombody

A daughter  should expect kindness and compassion from their father -

Everyone learns to live and love within thier family structure- and we take that paradigm with us in life.  My dad is an Italian Catholic Marine-  My brothers and sisters  learned that  " Pain is weakness leaving your body " - great
Parents  might consider  going back to school and learn how  to teach thier children health/sex ed but hey- how about physical education and drivers ed. while their at it ?

I think that perhaps your dad should skip the sex ed. classes and should have attended parenting classes. ITALIAN, CATHOLIC AND MARINE....phew!

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States forgoing grants for abstinence education Skeptics point to studies, funding precariousness
BY KEVIN FREKING The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — Skeptical states are shoving aside millions of federal dollars for abstinence education, walking away from the program the Bush administration touts for slowing teen sexual activity.
    Barely half the states are still in, and two more say they are leaving.
    Some $50 million has been budgeted for this year, and financially strapped states might be expected to want their share. But many have doubts that the program does much, if any, good, and they’re frustrated by chronic uncertainty that it will even be kept in existence. They also have to chip in state money in order to receive the federal grants.
    Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, made his decision to leave based on the congressionally mandated curriculum, which teaches “the social, psychological and health gains of abstaining from sexual activity.” Instructors must teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects.
    “It was just too strict,” said Emily Hajek, policy adviser to Culver. “We believe local providers have the knowledge to teach what’s going to be best in those situations, what kind of information will help those young people be safe. You cannot be that prescriptive about how it has to be taught.”
    A federal tally shows that participation in the program is down 40 percent over two years, with 28 states still in. Arizona and Iowa have announced their intention to forgo their share of the federal grant at the start of the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
    The program was created by Congress in 1996 as part of welfare reform.
    Since 2002, lawmakers have approved 19 short-term extensions — usually for three or six months at a time. But on three occasions, the program was extended for just a few days.
    Whatever state officials think of the program’s aims, that’s not the kind of bureaucratic consistency they need to budget for employees and to put contracts out to bid.
    “The funding stream became inconsistent. We didn’t know from one quarter to the next whether we’d be getting the rest of the money,” said Elke Shaw-Tulloch of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. “We got to the point where we didn’t have any infrastructure to put the money to use. At the same time, there was mounting evidence the abstinence programs weren’t proving to be effective.”
    Throw in a rising pregnancy rate among 15- to 19-year-olds in Idaho — 2,543 pregnancies in 2006 compared with 2,396 in 2004 — and state officials decided last summer it was time to get out.
    Stanley Koutstaal, the federal official who oversees the abstinenceonly program at the Administration for Children and Family Services, notes that more than half the states still choose to participate. “Obviously, many states still fi nd it valuable and have adopted it as their approach to addressing the sexual activity of teens,” he said.
    He called for long-term reauthorization of the block grants so that states and their contractors can be more certain about the future and can plan accordingly.
    Some states’ officials do speak favorably of the program.
    In Georgia, some 250,000 students have participated in abstinence education since 2000 through schools, church groups and nonprofit agencies.
    Teachers in Georgia go beyond the abstinence message. They stress community service and performing better in school, said Jen Bennecke, executive director of the governor’s office for children and families. Bennecke says the program has led to an almost 50 percent drop in pregnancy rates for Georgia youth ages 15-17 since the mid-90s.
    “We really see abstinence education as a clear, concise and positive message,” Bennecke said. “We’ve presented it as a healthy lifestyle choice.”
    The abstinence-only grants have been controversial from the start.
    Supporters say comprehensive sex education sends a mixed message and that abstinence is the only method that is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Critics say abstinence education simply doesn’t stop teens from having sex and those teens need more information about how to reduce pregnancy and disease.

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Report: Thousands having unsafe sex

    NEW YORK — The city Health Department says tens of thousands of New Yorkers are putting themselves at risk by having unsafe sex.
    A report issued Tuesday indicates about 40 percent of New Yorkers with multiple partners had engaged in sex without a condom.
    Overall, 11 percent of New Yorkers — some 610,000 adults — had more than one partner in the year leading up to the survey. About 5 percent of New Yorkers who were married or in steady relationships said they’d had two or more partners during that same period.
    Men are three times more likely than women to report multiple partners.
    The findings are based on the latest available figures, from 2006, and were obtained during a telephone survey of about 10,000 New York City adults.

Geezzzzeee....and I thought that the millions of dollars in taxpayers money going toward Planned Parenthood and Sex Ed, would have made a difference by now. Guess not!!!!!!! People still do what people want to do!!!

And we are shocked......why?......