NC ACTION: Support Comprehensive Sex Ed in Schools

This comes from Blue NC:

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.

Even among those who typically oppose progressive policies, there is widespread support:

Even among voter groups traditionally most opposed to any increase in sex education there is majority support, including conservatives (58%), Republicans (54%), senior citizens (63%) and rural voters (69%).

Groups whose support exceeds 80% include liberals (88%), urban dwellers (86%), and African Americans (83%).

It's particularly interesting to note that the group of voters that is most likely to have recently gone through the public schools in North Carolina, those under 30, give the bill one of its highest levels of support at 76%.

This is certainly great news, but those of you in North Carolina still need to let your representatives know that you support this measure.

This is so important! Comprehensive Sex Ed has been shown over and over to be the absolute MOST EFFECTIVE way to prevent teen pregnancy, STDs and reduce abortion. Abstinence only is about the WORST way to try and reduce teen pregnancy, the spread of STDs, or abortion. The organization SIECUS has some of the most comprehensive information on Abstinence Only vs. Traditional, Reality-Based Sex Education. For example:

Federal Evaluation Finds Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Ineffective

In April 2007, a federally funded evaluation of Title V abstinence-only-until- marriage programs was released. The study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are ineffective. Of the more than 700 federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, the evaluation looked at only four programs. These programs were handpicked to show positive results and they still failed.1


Mathematica’s evaluation found no evidence that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs increased rates of sexual abstinence—the entire supposed purpose of the programs.


Students in the abstinence-only-until-marriage programs had a similar age of first sex and similar numbers of sexual partners as their peers who were not in the programs.


The average age of sexual debut was the same for the abstinence-only-until-marriage participants and control groups (14 years, 9 months).

Let's do what works. Please support comprehensive, reality-based Sex Ed for America's children. And again, let your representatives know that you support the Healthy Youth Act.

By the way, this is an issue in NY State as well. So there is nothing unique about North Carolina on this issue. We need to fight for good, reality-based education all across the nation.