FPA in the News: 2006

The Legislative Gazette

“Healthy Teens Act Supporters Hope for End-of-Year Session Action”

By Sasha Austrie

6.12.06

With the end of the legislative session quickly approaching, advocates of the Healthy Teens Act are doing everything in their power to persuade the Senate to pass the bill.

“Significant things happen at the end of session,” said JoAnn Smith, president and CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York State. “We will continue to press for a vote on this.”

Last Wednesday, Family Planning Advocates of New York and professors from Columbia University met with senators to urge them to pass bill S.5121-C, which is sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Spano, R,C,I-Yonkers. A corresponding bill (A.6619-C) passed in the Assembly in April.

The bill would create a grant program to support school-based health centers, boards of cooperative educational services and community organizations in the development and implementation of programs that provide New York’s students with sex education through the state Health Department. The program is aimed at preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The bill is now in the Senate finance committee.

Those who support the Healthy Teens Act want to see inclusive sex education program taught in New York’s schools, which would include teaching not only abstinence, but preventative measures, such as the use of contraceptives, as well.

“Pediatrics and parents across the state know that their children need better sex education,” said John Santelli, chairman of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Santelli is a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist.

“The data clearly shows that comprehensive sex education helps young people delay the initiation of intercourse and be better prepared when they do become sexually active,” he said.

According to Family Planning Advocates, “more than $13 million was spent on abstinence-only sex education in New York last year.”

Under the state Education Department’s regulations, schools “shall provide appropriate instruction concerning AIDS as part of the sequential health education program.” The regulations allow students to be instructed on the transmission and prevention of AIDS.

The regulations also say schools’ health education programs must, “stress abstinence as the most appropriate and effective premarital protection against AIDS, and shall be age appropriate and consistent with community values.”

According to Planned Parenthood, New York is the third largest spender behind Texas and Florida on abstinence-only programs but has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy.

Smith previously said, “More than 40,000 New York teens become pregnant each year. The vast majority of these pregnancies are unintended and could be prevented.”

Smith said the professors from Columbia University were going to meet with more senators in their districts.

“This is not a one shot deal,” said Smith. She said the group’s main purpose was to come out and work with Mr. Bruno’s staff.

Mark Hansen, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R,I-Brunswick, said, “the bill is still under review.”