PARSE

2012 Budget Preserves Important Sexual and Reproductive Health Spending

parseinpa — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:23:04 +0000

President Obama submitted his budget for the 2012 Fiscal Year on February 14, 2011. Under increased pressure to reduce discretionary spending in order to reduce the deficit, the President’s budget freezes funding for many important health-related programs, but manages to preserve the core of many initiatives designed to increase access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. The budget reveals the President’s continued commitment to make progress on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and to expand access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities, supporting the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Click here for details.

Obama administration’s funding for sex-ed programs

parseinpa — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:47:40 +0000

Obama administration has started a $110 million campaign which will support a range of programs, including those that teach about the risks of specific sexual activities and the benefits of contraception and others that focus primarily on encouraging teens to delay sex. Click Here to read more.

Getting Rid of Abstinence?

parseinpa — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:42:58 +0000

A bill to repeal all abstinence funding from the federal government was introduced on September 29, 2010 by Sen. Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Lee (D-CA). Click Here to for more information.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and Personal Responsibility Education Program funds

parseinpa — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:44:11 +0000

The list of grantees awarded Tier 1 and Tier 2 Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and Personal Responsibility Education Program Funds by State: Click Here to read the report.

Efficacy of a Theory-Based Abstinence-Only

parseinpa — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:04:54 +0000

Dr. John B. Jemmott III, the University of Pennsylvania professor, who led a study of middle-school students that found for the first time that abstinence-only education helped to delay their sexual initiation is already beginning to shake up the longstanding debate over how best to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The study lead to the program titled Promoting Health Among Teens. Efficacy of abstince only intervention journal article.

CDC: One-third of sex ed omits birth control

parseinpa — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:16:13 +0000

Almost all U.S. teens have had formal sex education, but only about two-thirds have been taught about birth control methods, according to a new government report released Wednesday. Many teens apparently are not absorbing those lessons — other recent data shows that after years of steady decline, the teen birth rate rose from 2005 to 2007. It dipped again in 2008, to about 10% of all births. Click Here to view the rest of the article.

SIECUS State Profiles.

parseinpa — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:42:21 +0000

We are very thankful for the work of SIECUS! For the seventh year in a row, SIECUS has put together a comprehensive series of documents in their State Profiles Report that illustrate all of the laws and policies each state maintains relative to sex education. Each state’s profile articulates and breaks down the different bills and proposals put forth in the legislature during the previous fiscal year. Moreover, the profiles provide a thorough presentation of statistical evidence regarding each state’s pregnancy rates, percentages concerning sexually transmitted infections, and data regarding sexuality among teenagers. Click here to view each state’s profile.

Federal Funds for Sex Education

parseinpa — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:19:32 +0000

Check out this explanation of how new federal funding streams will work to support comprehensive sex education. parse-sex-ed-funds

U.Penn Reverend Supports HB 1163

parseinpa — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:20:44 +0000

Letter to the Editor

June 2, 2010

In a time when incivility is all too present in public discourse and lawmaking gets bogged down in divisiveness, we enthusiastically commend the Republican and Democratic representatives in Harrisburg for finding common ground on a difficult topic – how to protect the sexual health of our young people. As a clergy, we believe that a society has a moral imperative to provide medically accurate information to young adults in order to keep them safe. House Bill 1163 holds great promise. It will ensure that these young adults are taught to abstain from premature sexual behavior, but it also would dispel misleading stereotypes and correct the misinformation that harms our young people. With one in four teen girls already infected with sexually transmitted infections, this education is sorely needed.

Because we often minister to families through their times of struggle, we know the difficulties some young people have growing up – especially through the teen years. Passage of this bill will help reduce the ignorance that contributes to the 23,000 teen pregnancies annually in this state and potentially reduce the number of abortions. The immediate passage of HB 1163 bill will help families and young adults in their decision-making process by giving them the necessary tools.

With bipartisan support the legislators have developed a bill to maximize the freedom of school boards and parents by allowing local school boards to determine their own sexuality curriculum as long as it is based on medically-accurate and evidence-based data. In addition, it will allow parents to opt out, should they choose to provide sex education to their children themselves. In our view this develops a win-win legislative package without compromising our youth.
At no cost to the State and little cost to local schools, our legislators have found a way to do the right thing for Pennsylvania families. This is something all of us can support. It sends a message that, in this State, we care about our young people enough to protect them. And that is what family values are all about.

Sincerely,

Rev. Beverly Dale
The Christian Association
University of Pennsylvania

Op-Ed. in Philadelphia Inquirer 6/23/10

parseinpa — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:04:39 +0000

Click here to check out the latest op-ed piece found in the Philly Inquirer today, June 23!