UPDATED: Time to Turn the Lights on in Wisconsin Schools

UPDATE: The Healthy Youth Act passed out of committee this morning in the Wisconsin State Senate, and will now go on to the full Senate for a vote.  We will keep you updated.

Like states across the country, Wisconsin is facing a public health crisis that needs a statewide solution.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), sexually transmitted diseases among Wisconsin teens ages 15 to 19 increased 53 percent between 1997 and 2007. Twenty percent of new HIV infections in Wisconsin are diagnosed in young people ages 15 to 24.  And at the same time, the dramatic 10 year drop in teen childbearing has halted.

With 28 health centers throughout Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is the state’s largest and oldest reproductive health provider.  We see patients every day who do not have the knowledge to prevent the STD they have contracted or prevent the unintended pregnancy that they now confront.  This is an outrage.

There is no dispute that abstinence is the most effective way to avoid unintended pregnancy and STDs.   But the reality is that 45 percent of Wisconsin high school students self-report being sexually active and only 61 percent said they used a condom during their last sexual encounter, according to a 2008 DHS study.  We need to do more for our the sake of our kids’ futures.

Today the Wisconsin state Senate Committee on Education is voting on the Healthy Youth Act, a much needed first step in teaching young people the skills and information they need to make safe, healthy choices now and throughout their lives.  The Healthy Youth Act was passed in by the full state Assembly in November, but had not moved in the Senate—until today.

The Healthy Youth Act ensures that the most current standards of sex education are being taught and that public schools are using programs proven to reduce teen pregnancy and STD rates.  The bill updates the core elements of what a sex education program must include if offered in Wisconsin and does away with ineffective abstinence-only policies.

To most Wisconsinites, this bill is about common sense, a much-needed first step in ensuring more students in our state have access to life-saving health information.  Eighty-seven percent of voters in Wisconsin, including people from all political persuasions, support teaching youth accurate information about pregnancy and disease prevention.

What’s more, a broad coalition supports the Healthy Youth Act, including the United Way of Greater Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Public Health Association and the Wisconsin Association of School Nurses.  These organizations are working with students on the front lines and they know that evidence-based, comprehensive sexuality education is one important part of a much needed state-wide approach to help youth avoid unintended pregnancy and disease.

The few groups opposing the Healthy Youth Act oppose contraceptive use not just by teens, but by adults, too.  These individuals ignore undisputed data and distort both current law and the Healthy Youth Act to make their case.  Their effort to defeat this legislation is unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Constituents have threatened the children of supportive legislators.  Capitol Police were called to the Assembly hearing because of the conduct of an opponent who apparently mistook the hearing for a Tea Party rally.  But it’s not just average citizens engaged in this abhorrent behavior.

A document circulated in the Capitol by a legislative aide calls the Healthy Youth Act “a tax-payer funded bailout of Wisconsin’s abortion industry.”  The document alleges the bill would “promote homosexuality to captive teen audiences” and establish “taxpayer-funded sex clinics in Wisconsin schools.”  At public hearings on the bill, legislative aides have photographed prominent supporters of the legislation and coordinated the harassment of these supporters with local activists.  

Their efforts have been relentless.  In the week following the Senate hearing, a Milwaukee priest supporting the legislation received between three and eight phone calls a day from people outside of his parish condemning him for his support of the Healthy Youth Act.  Anti-choice extremists have demanded business leaders pull funding of a sexual assault treatment facility whose social worker testified in support of the bill.

In spite of the small but coordinated effort to keep teens in the dark, supporters of the Healthy Youth Act will continue to send a clear message to lawmakers that it’s time to turn the light on in Wisconsin schools.  And with so much at stake, it’s time they listen to us.