Healthy Youth Act

Cross posted on Amplify
Last week CNN reporter Carol Costello came to Durham, NC to interview several North Carolina State Activists about a story about the Healthy Youth Act in North Carolina.

The story aired last Thursday on American Morning, and it is now Online:

Cross posted on Ampify

Open Mic talked about the bullying bill that passed here in North Carolina last week, and I wanted to share some more great news. HB 88, the Healthy Youth Act of North Carolina, passed it final hurdle last week at the state legislature and Gov. Purdue signed it into law today! The NC legislature website has all the versions of the bill, all the vote history, and other legislative info for those who are interested. Also, the News and Observer had a nice front-page story about the Healthy Youth Act, they were so kind as to ask me for a quote. You can check that out here.

Please take action immediately on the following:

Dear Betsy,

If you make one call this afternoon, please make it to Senator Eddie Goodall at (919) 733-7659 to voice your support of the two-track version of the Healthy Youth Act, House Bill 88. The most effective time to make the call will be between 1 and 3pm today, so go ahead and mark your calendar, set an alert on your phone or computer, set your alarm clock or kitchen timer and get ready! The call will only last a minute, but it can make a huge difference in the lives of kids in our schools.

Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina's Paige Johnson wrote a great piece in the Carrboro Citizen about the Healthy Youth Act and comprehensive sex education. You can follow all of their policy/activist efforts on twitter at http://twitter.com/ppcnc.

(http://www.carrborocitizen.com/main/2009/05/14/comprehensive-sex-educati...)

Comprehensive sex education will equip our children to survive

If a 13-year-old enrolls in eighth-grade Spanish, should her parents fear she’ll start packing her bags for Madrid as soon as the semester is over? Not likely. Yet opponents of comprehensive sex education often use similar reasoning in their opposition to allowing schools in North Carolina to offer it.

They claim providing young people with information about the effectiveness of birth control in preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections will somehow encourage teenagers to have sex. The opposite is true.

Prolog:

In 2007 I happened to see a sign in the State Bureau of Vital Statistics that listed the 2005 facts I mention below in my article. The NC legislature was beginning to consider the comprehensive sex ed bill( Healthy Youth Act H88/S221 ) at the time. As I began to think about that bill I sensed a kind of link between that issue and the driver's license as a universally accepted rite of passage. I struggled to organize a coherent argument. This year, when I heard Rep. Ty Harrell, a leading sponsor of the bill, in an interview on WPTF (of all places) make an offhand comment about the driver’s license during the discussion, my concept finally clicked. I.e. sex ed is more important to the public good than are teen drivers licenses.

Cross-posted on Amplify
The Healthy Youth Act (HB 88) will be heard on the house floor tomorrow, and there will be a vote either tomorrow or thursday (April 16th). If it passes it will be the most important reproductive rights victory in NC in over 15 years (since the NC legislature introduced abstinence-only in the mid 1990’s.) The Healthy Youth act has passed three committees (Education, Health, and Appropriations), and this is the FINAL STEP in passing in the state House before it moves to the state senate.

**Cross posted on Amplify**
Last Tuesday, March 10th, was Adolescent Health Advocacy Day in NC. Over 200 youth activists and state officials gathered at the NC capitol to learn about effective advocacy and important issues like comprehensive sex education, teen pregnancy, mental health, and physical health. The morning featured youth speakers and state senators and representatives speaking about why we needed to make our voices heard.

(crossposted at Amplify)

North Carolina's state legislature is currently debating the Healthy Youth Act, which would finally bring much needed comprehensive sex education to their classrooms. And a recent poll from Public Policy Polling shows that this is the kind of sex education that a large majority of North Carolinians want.

When asked: "A bill being considered in the Legislature would give parents the choice of having their children receive comprehensive sex education or abstinence only sex education. Would you support this proposal?" , 69 % say yes, to only 31% who say no.