Human Services News

Young People to Mobilize Against Failed Abstinence-Only Programs at Home and Abroad

WASHINGTON, DC (February 13, 2006) At a time when the President's FY2007 budget requests significant increases for failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs at home and abroad, Advocates for Youth is launching two new campaigns to mobilize young people across the country in opposition to these ineffective and dangerous programs that censor information about condoms.

The Rights.Respect.Responsibility.® Keep It REAL campaign and the Rights.Respect.Responsibility.® Fix the Gap campaign both build upon Advocates' Youth Activist Network (YAN), a group comprised of more than 15,000 youth from communities across the country.

These young people work together to fight for accurate sexual health information and services so that they can prevent unintended pregnancy and STDs, including HIV.

The Keep It REAL campaign empowers youth to become part of the policy process by demanding honest and accurate information about sexual and reproductive health and supporting the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act.

The REAL Act, introduced by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), would provide federal money to support responsible sex education in schools -- science-based, medically accurate, and age appropriate information about both abstinence and contraception.

The Fix the Gap campaign takes aim at the exportation of abstinence-only programs by the U.S. to other countries around the world, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.

"I couldn't agree more with Mr. Gillespie's sentiments," said Fix the Gap campaign coordinator Charis Goff, age 21.