healthy youth act

The Healthy Youth Act requires sex education taught in Wisconsin public schools to be medically accurate, age-appropriate and comprehensive.

The Healthy Youth Act was signed into law by Governor Doyle on February 24, 2010.

Healthy Youth Alliance

The Healthy Youth Act:

The Healthy Youth Act ensures that the most current standards of sex education are being taught in Wisconsin and that public schools are using programs proven to reduce teen pregnancy and STD rates by:

1. Ensuring that Wisconsin public schools that opt to teach sex education do so in a medically accurate and age-appropriate way, including information about both abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancies and STDs;
2. Requiring a school board choosing not to provide sex education notify parents that their student will not receive any instruction in preventing unintended pregnancies and STDs; 
3. Directing the state to apply for any federal teen pregnancy prevention funds available to the states.

Passed in the state senate 17-16 on 11/2/11
Public hearing scheduled in Assembly on 11/16/11

The Healthy Youth Act that was passed last year ensures sex education taught in Wisconsin public schools is medically accurate, age-appropriate and comprehensive. The Healthy Youth Act gives teens the tools they need to stay healthy now and in the future.

It's outrageous! Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) has introduced a bill to repeal the Healthy Youth Act. This dangerous bill will leave teens in the dark:

• Deny teens information about contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and STDs.
• Refuse to give teens the skills they need to make responsible decisions about sexual behavior.
• Require a return to failed abstinence-only until marriage instruction.
• Gut the definition of "medically accurate".
• Remove parents' right to know if sex education being taught in the classroom.
• Ban volunteer doctors and nurses from teaching sex education in schools.

Take Action! Contact your State Representative and tell them to vote NO on the Repeal of the Healthy Youth Act! 

What is Responsible Sex Education:

• Is age-appropriate, medically accurate and comprehensive. It includes information about both abstinence and birth control as ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
• Gives teens and young adults the tools they need to stay healthy now and in the future.
• Does not increase sexual activity. Studies show that they can help young people delay sex and increase the use of contraceptives among those teens having sex (Kirby, 2001; Kaplan, 2001).
• Delays teen sexual behavior, and reduce the incidents of teen pregnancy and STDs.
• Provides young people with knowledge about the risks and consequences of pregnancy and STDs. They include medically accurate and age-appropriate information about abstinence and contraception.
• Gives teens the life skills they need to say no to sex; to insist on contraception; and to communicate with parents or other trusted adults about these issues.
• Is supported by the American Association of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, and the National Education Association.

The Consequences of Unprotected Teen Sex are Staggering

• 45% of high schoolers self-report that they are currently sexually active. Yet only 61% of those teens used a condom during their last sexual counter.
• According to a 2008 study by the CDC, 1 in 4 young women has an STD.
• Nearly 6,000 Wisconsin teen girls will get pregnant this year with many of them dropping out of school and onto safety net programs that cost tax payers an estimated $158 million each year. 
• 27% of new HIV infections in Wisconsin are diagnosed in young people ages 15-24. 
• Children born to teen mothers are 9 times more likely to live in poverty. And only 40% of teen moms graduate from high school, compared to 75% of young women who post-pone childbearing to age 20-21. (Why it Matters: Teen Pregnancy and Education, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen & Unintended Pregnancy).

Abstinence-Only Education has Failed Young People

• There has not been a single study showing that abstinence-only sex education has any positive impact on teen behavior.