'North Carolina's Youth Deserve Better Than This,' APPCNC Urges Support for Comprehensive Sexuality Education
18,259 Pregnant Teens Can't Be Wrong
For Immediate Release - The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina (APPCNC) joined North Carolina's youth in urging passage of Senate Bill 1182/ House Bill 879 today. Executive Director Kay Phillips announced the support: "North Carolina's youth deserve better than half-measures. They deserve comprehensive sexuality education; they deserve to know the facts about their bodies and sexuality. These bills will give our children the education that they deserve and need."
The bills, introduced by Senator Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth and Representatives Fisher, Coleman, Jeffus, Goodwin, mandate a change from Abstinence Until Marriage to Abstinence Based Comprehensive Sexuality Education and further stress awareness of sexual abuse and assault risk reduction, as well as increased knowledge of the Safe Surrender laws. It also dictates that all materials used in education be medically and factually accurate. "These changes are nothing more than what we'd expect from any medical instruction," added Director Phillips, "Obviously you wouldn't expect to go in to the doctor's for a cold and be told only that cold medicines fail 2% of the time and you shouldn't have gotten the cold in the first place. It's ridiculous to think we do that to our kids concerning sexuality."
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| 'This is not political; it's about doing what is right for our children'
"This is not an issue of conservative or liberal, of Democratic or Republican," said Heather Champion, Board Chairperson for APPCNC, "It is a question of whether we are doing right by our children. We must ask ourselves if what we are providing now is the absolute best that we can do for our children. 18,259 pregnant teens in 2005 say that it isn't." The laws would not remove abstinence as the best choice for teens, rather it would fully educate teens about contraception in the event that abstinence fails.
The Bill is currently in committee and will be voted upon on or around April 12. Anyone interested in supporting this legislation should contact their legislators as soon as possible by phone or email.
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