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Marcela Howell (202) 419-3420
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October 9, 2007 |
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“WE ARE NOT YOUR PAWNS”
Youth Activists Deliver “Pawns” to Congress to Protest Continued Funding
for Discredited Abstinence-Only Programs
WASHINGTON, DC (October 9, 2007) Today, forty youth activists will meet with Members of Congress to voice their opposition to continuing funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
“Congress acts as if young people are just pawns in their political agenda,” said Ashley, a high school activist from Richmond, Virginia. “It’s like they don’t understand how their votes affect the lives of real people. Or maybe they just don’t care.”
“What they’re really saying is that young people, like me, are not part of their political equation,” said Benjamin, a 16-year-old activist from Bowie, Maryland.
Ashley and Benjamin are part of the sixty-eight youth activists, ages 15 to 24, who gathered over the weekend for the sixth annual Urban Retreat, an intensive training institute sponsored by Advocates for Youth. Advocates is a national organization dedicated to creating programs and advocating for policies that help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
Despite the findings of a long-awaited congressionally-mandated report showing that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs do not work to help teens delay sexual initiation, Congress extended funding for one abstinence-only program and is poised to increase funding for another.
“Today, Members of Congress will hear first-hand what young people think about these ridiculous policies,” said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth. “Young people know what negatively impacts their lives and the lives of their peers. Congress needs to listen.”
Since 1982, Congress has allocated over $1.5 billion for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that censor information about birth control and the health benefits of condoms in preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
“I don’t understand how they can keep ignoring the facts,” added Benjamin. “The facts say abstinence-only programs don’t work. The facts say stop funding them.”
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Advocates for Youth is a national, nonprofit organization that creates programs and supports policies that help young people make safe, responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
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