Repro Health Hub

With spring break just around the corner, we bring you some important safe sex tips from sex education activist Shelby Knox. This piece originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

If only network TV would lead with this news: according to a University of Minnesota study, “hooking up” — casual sex with more than one partner — is NOT in itself damaging to one’s psychological health.

Just like the “free love” generation before us, millennials figured this out long before the men in white coats arrived. For some, hooking up is a way to explore their sexuality without a relationship commitment. For others it’s a form of dating — a good relationship requires a good sexual relationship, so why not cut to the chase?

But — there’s a catch. The study only covers emotional health. It just so happens the hook-up generation is also a primary victim of failed abstinence-only marriage programs and their sexual health knowledge is… terrifying. Another new study, this one by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, found that less than half of young adults use contraception when they have sex. In interviewing 18-29 year olds, they netted what is officially one of the scariest quotes of the year: “it doesn’t matter whether you use birth control or not; when it is your time to get pregnant it will happen.”

Yikes! These are the brainiacs you could be hooking up with over Spring Break?!? With that in mind, it’s time for another round of “Smart Girl Tips” to keep you safe, healthy, and sexy this Spring Break:

• If there’s even the remotest possibility you’ll be having sex on the beach — or anywhere else, for that matter — buy your condoms of choice before you leave and stash a few in your purse, the rest in your carry-on. Condoms are the only way to prevent sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, so use one every single time you have sex. (A condom can also be cut in half to be used as a dental dam for safer oral fun!) If you’re on birth control, make sure to pack enough pills for your trip and remember to take it at the same time you usually do — the beer pong can wait a few minutes, we promise!
• Safe sex is the goal — no one wants to get a diaper bag for graduation! — but it’s not always the reality. If the condom slips off (or never makes it on in the first place), there’s Plan B® One Step, the only one-pill emergency contraception that can be taken up to 72 hours after unprotected sex to prevent unintended pregnancy. If you’re 17 or older, you can get it without a prescription at the pharmacy — pick it up before you leave (Plan B® One-Step is only available in the US) so a slip-up doesn’t ruin your vacation.
• If it’s mom you’d want the hospital to call when you’ve got heat exhaustion, program her numbers into your phone under ICE (”In Case of Emergency”) before you set off. When you’re on the ground, put the hotel’s phone number and address into your contacts and ask the front desk for the digits of a local cab company. If the hotel has a shuttle service, get a paper copy of the schedule and take a picture of it on your phone for later reference.
• Hop from place to place in a pack and designate a ’sober sister’ to make sure no one is slinking out the door with that gelled up, spray-tanned creeper or undressing for an ill-advised turn on the bar. As a rule, no one should leave alone with a new-found “friend” — but if you absolutely must head out for a hook-up, have a friend program your prize’s phone number in her phone and take a picture of you together. Set a time to check-in by text — and make sure to follow through.
• The same ‘drink rules’ you follow at frat parties apply tenfold on Spring Break — never accept a drink from someone you don’t know and don’t leave it unattended while you dance or go to the bathroom. Same goes for those glowing vials of alcohol — take it directly from the server before it gets passed down the line.
• More than 60% of employers take social networking profiles into consideration when making hiring decisions. Don’t let a week of debauchery ruin your job prospects by remembering that everything is a camera, including phones, iPods, and computers. Don’t do anything at a club you’d be mortified to see on CNN tomorrow. Be selective when posting your own pics — booze bottles, red eyes, and lots of skin are probably best kept under the ‘private’ setting for you and your fellow revelers to enjoy.

There has recently been a lot of media attention around a new study comparing different methods of sexuality education. Many people are claiming that this study provides scientific evidence for the efficacy of both abstinence-only and abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. However, such claims are misleading. This study does not challenge the large body of evidence showing that the abstinence-only-until-marriage programs championed by the Bush administration are ineffective.

First, this single study is relatively small, examining 662 African-American students in sixth and seventh grades. An article in the Huffington Post noted that the results were based on the students’ self-reporting, a method that is inherently flawed, as the students could have reported only what they thought the researchers wanted to hear. Not only would the study’s results need to be replicated for any sweeping claims about the value of abstinence-only education to be accurate, but a similar study would need to be carried out among older students and among students in different ethnic groups.

The study’s findings have also been overstated. The researchers did not compare abstinence-only to comprehensive sexuality education programs, but rather compared different kinds of sexuality education programs to a health education program that did not discuss sexuality. The students in the study were randomly assigned to five different groups: abstinence-only, 8-hour comprehensive, 12-hour comprehensive, safer-sex only, and health education, and the health education group served as a control group to which all the other groups were compared. The most frequently quoted result – that significantly fewer of the abstinence-only students started having sex in the 24 months following the sexuality education classes – was based on a comparison between abstinence-only and health education students, not between abstinence-only and any of the other sexuality education students. Less often reported is that students in the comprehensive classes were less likely to report having multiple sexual partners than students in the health education group. The results of the study, therefore, are both more nuanced and less powerful than they have been made out to be.

It is absurd to argue that this study validates the use of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs over the last decade, as the curriculum employed in the study was inherently different than the curricula supported under the Bush administration. According to the Guttmacher Institute’s review of the study, the abstinence-only program used in the study would in no way meet federal criteria for such programs. As a New York Times editorial from February 8th points out, federally funded abstinence-only programs advocate abstinence until marriage, but the students in the study were taught to remain abstinent until they were ready to handle the responsibilities inherent in having sex. Additionally, the program employed in the study - unlike many federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs - avoided taking a moralistic or negative tone towards sex, and explicitly instructed facilitators “not to disparage the efficacy of condoms or allow the view that condoms are ineffective to go uncorrected.”

There is still one question that few articles address: what should be the aim of sexuality education in the first place? As the Huffington Post article points out, “Sex educators will be the first to say that abstinence is a critical and necessary part of comprehensive sex education efforts,” but that exhortations to abstain hardly form a complete education. Similarly, the Guttmacher Institute report argues that preventing younger kids from having sex is important, but that “it is likewise important to prepare students for the time when they do become sexually active.”

The National Institute for Reproductive Health supports comprehensive sexuality education that not only delays the onset of sexual activity for younger kids, but also teaches kids the skills they need for a healthy sexual life.

By Sasha Albert, Sexuality Education Project Intern

Congress recently ended its federal funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, and not a minute too soon. A new report by the Guttmacher Institute demonstrates that after a decade and a half of decline, teen pregnancy, abortion and birth rates in the United States have begun to rise. Between 2005 and 2006, teen pregnancy rates increased by 3% nationwide, and teen abortion rates by 1%. Teen births rose steadily between 2005 and 2006, and again between 2006 and 2007.

The Guttmacher report highlights the link between the recent emphasis on abstinence-only education and the rise in teen pregnancy. According to senior public policy associate Heather Boonstra, the increase in teen pregnancy “coincides with an increase in rigid abstinence-only-until-marriage programs…A strong body of research shows that these programs do not work.” Even when the teen pregnancy rate was at its lowest, in the early 2000s, the United States still had a higher rate of teen pregnancy than other industrialized nations. Continuing to deny teens’ access to comprehensive sexuality education will not prevent a further rise in teen pregnancies. Richard S. Guido, chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’s Committee on Adolescent Health Care, has decried the usefulness of abstinence-only, saying that “the idea that most teens will wait to have sex indefinitely is rigid and impractical.” Meanwhile, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, agrees that it is time for a different approach: “This new study makes it crystal clear that abstinence-only sex education for teenagers does not work.”

The Guttmacher report demonstrates the need for comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education in all schools in the United States. Congress has recently taken an important first step and established $114 million for a teen pregnancy prevention program that will provide much-needed federal funds to help support comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention programs and sexuality education programs across the country.

The National Institute for Reproductive Health, in partnership with advocates across the nation, is committed to ensuring that young people have access to comprehensive sexuality education programs in their schools and communities.

By Sasha Albert, Sexuality Education Project Intern

New Year’s Eve is the biggest night of the year—including for birth control accidents. In fact, the stats are pretty startling: use of emergency contraception (EC) more than doubles in the first days of the new year.

That’s why the National Institute’s Back Up Your Birth Control campaign has launched a special effort to remind women that, if they do have a birth control mishap on the big night, EC is available over-the-counter at pharmacies, even in a single pill. At DontDropTheBall.org you can even send funny morning-after messages to all your friends to remind them that EC can get them out of a pickle on January 1st.

But first watch the hilarious “OMG, I sent that text to Grandma?!” video that started it all. Because if you can accidentally text your Grandma on New Year’s Eve, what else can go wrong?

Finally, share some of these fun facts about EC with all your friends this New Year’s…

• You can get EC over-the-counter if you’re 17 or older.
• There is now a convenient, one-pill version of EC.
• EC can help prevent pregnancy when taken within 120 hours of unprotected sex but is more effective the sooner you take it.
• EC is 95% effective when taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex.
• EC is kept behind the counter so you will need to ask the pharmacist for it.
• EC is NOT the “abortion pill,” Mifeprex™ or RU-486, and will not terminate an existing pregnancy.
• EC is a higher dosage of the same hormones found in many birth control pills.

By Maya Dusenbery

Great news for comprehensive sex education supporters! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commissioned a report on comprehensive risk reduction education programs and now recommends them for adolescents 10-19 years old because they were found to reduce engagement in any sexual activity, frequency of sexual activity, number of partners, frequency of unprotected sexual activity and incidence of STIs, while also increasing use of protection against pregnancy and STIs. In addition, the report also analyzed abstinence until marriage education programs and found that there is insufficient evidence to prove those programs are effective because of the little impact it made on the behaviors listed above.

This is a huge and exciting step for a government entity to acknowledge the difference that comprehensive sex education makes! It is particularly important as Congress is on the verge of providing federal funding for comprehensive sex education programs for the first time.

The full report from the Task Force can be found here.

By Ally Fujii

The Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health has begun! The Rocky Mountain West Regional Summit, the first of four regional summits that will take place in the next month, was held last week in Denver. Wendy Norris covered the summit on RH Reality Check:

After weathering eight years of conservative attacks, the pro-choice community held high hopes that the Obama Administration, bolstered by democratic majorities in Congress, would signal an end to partisan bickering over federal funding for comprehensive care and the tedious national obsession with abortion.

With that optimism scattering to the four winds of manufactured political controversy, the National Institute for Reproductive Health is organizing the Urban Initiative for Reproductive Heath, four regional urban summits to bring providers, policymakers, activists, funders and legislators together to share effective program strategies and localized incidence data.

“There is a limitless potential to create change for women’s health at a local level,” said NIRH president Kelli Conlin at a Sept. 23 kick-off event in Denver. “What people here realize, much more clearly than people out East or in Washington, is that not everything has to be a knock-down, drag-out fight. You can get things done without burning down the house.”

Seeking common ground was a frequent theme throughout the discussions on sexuality education, underserved populations, and the intersection of reproductive freedom and economic self-sufficiency. Check out the whole piece to read about the lessons learned by our partners from Missoula, MT to Portland, OR.

Next, we’re headed to Atlanta for the Southeastern Regional Summit on Sept. 30-Oct. 2, followed by Chicago, Ill., (Oct. 21-23) and Los Angeles, Calif., (Oct. 29-30). Visit the Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health website to stay up-to-date!

In an effort find “common ground” on policies to prevent teen pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion, the White House has begun a series of discussions among a diverse group of abortion-rights supporters and opponents. According to the Wall Street Journal, the initial meetings, which began a month ago and are being led by domestic policy advisor Melody Barnes, have revealed areas of potential compromise as well as stark disagreements.

From the start, the polarizing question of whether abortion should be legal was taken off the table. Instead, the discussion has centered on issues surrounding sex education, responsible use of contraception, maternal and child health, pregnancy discrimination, and adoption. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Participants say that suggestions included: improving education about use of contraception; better access to emergency contraception (which can be used after sex); improving education about sex, relationships and the “sacredness of sex”; stamping out employment discrimination against pregnant women; improving family-leave policies; and encouraging adoption.

However, the WSJ notes that even without the hot-button topic of abortion, there are some major divergences in priorities and approach between the two sides: “Participants said that abortion opponents tended to focus on efforts to help pregnant women keep their babies, while the abortion-rights camp focused on preventing unwanted pregnancy.”

Consequently, many abortion-rights opponents support more funding for “pregnancy crisis centers,” which discourage women from having abortions by posing as women’s health clinics and giving out inaccurate information. Clearly not something the abortion-rights community is going to get behind anytime soon.

And while abortion-rights advocates want more support for contraception, some opponents are “unenthusiastic” about that. In fact, as Judy Berman points out in a good analysis on Salon, that’s a bit of an understatement. Many anti-choice activists are downright antagonistic towards efforts to increase access to birth control and emergency contraception.

Furthermore, given the overlap between the anti-choice movement and the abstinence-only camp, odds are good that some additional conflicts over sex education will crop up eventually.

Any earnest effort to reduce the need for abortion must include comprehensive sex education and better access to contraception. So long as a large segment of the anti-choice movement also happens to be opposed to these very things, the search for common ground could be more difficult than the White House anticipated.

By Maya Dusenbery

Keep your eyes out this summer for the new documentary, Sex Positive, a film that explores the history of the safe sex movement. Most folks don’t realize that the safe sex movement did not come from the medical community or government programs, but was driven by community activists, sex workers and porn stars in response to the AIDS epidemic. Activists Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen along with Dr. Joseph Sonnabend were some of the earliest voices of the time advocating for safer sex practices and behaviors and they received backlash from their own communities for doing so.

Richard Berkowitz appeared at Columbia University yesterday for a screening of the film. His message from 25 years ago is just as relevant today. Honest and open dialogue about sexual behaviors and risks is one way a community can take action against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, STI’s and unintended pregnancy. He pointed out that the evidence is there. If you look at the education campaigns of other developed countries, along with their STI and teen pregnancy rates, it is clear that the U.S. is doing something wrong.

By Monika Grzeniewski

Another pat on the back for the Guttmacher Institute! Earlier this year, the research center published some enlightening information about the recent trends in abortion rates within the U.S. and have now released their most recent research is a study on sexual behavior of American teens.

According to the study led by Laura Lindberg, the Institute analyzed information about teens between the ages of 15-19 taken from the 2002 National Survey of Family growth, with findings that demystify the myth that teens perform oral sex as a way of both being sexually active and remaining virgins.

The findings were as follows

• 55 percent of teenagers have engaged in heterosexual oral sex
• 50 percent have engaged in vaginal sex; and 11 percent have had anal sex.
• Both oral and anal sex are much more common among teens who have already engaged in vaginal intercourse than among those who haven’t, suggesting that teens initiate a range of sexual activities around the same time, rather than substitute one for another, Lindberg says.

“Our research shows that this supposed substitution of oral sex for vaginal sex is largely a myth,” Lindberg said in a statement. “There is no good evidence that teens who have not had intercourse engage in oral sex with a series of partners.”

The study will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Studies like these are imperative to understanding teenage sexuality, how to best prepare those who are sexually active to act safely and be aware of possible risks, and how to shape policy that effectively support these findings.

“The study has clear policy implications,” said Lindberg. “While oral and anal sex carry no risk of pregnancy, engaging in these behaviors can nevertheless put teens at risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Counseling and education should take into account total STI risk by addressing the full range of behaviors that teens engage in, including oral and anal sex. It is crucial that teens receive evidence-based education and counseling about STI risks and protective behaviors for all types of sexual activity. The federal government’s exclusive emphasis on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs does not give teens the skills and information they need to be safe.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Over the past month, there has been a lot of talk about sex education in this country (or a lack thereof) and we learned the sad truth of why education is necessary. The most recent study from the University of Washington in Seattle that was released a week ago was the most telling of the current state of sex ed. The team of researchers based their finding in data pulled from a national survey of teenagers conducted back in 2002, and the results reaffirm everything we’ve suspected for years now.

The findings go as follows: That year, one in four teens received abstinence-only education, nine percent received no sex ed at all, and the other two thirds had access to comprehensive education that included information about birth control. The teens that had access to comprehensive sex ed were 60% less likely to become pregnant or impregnating someone else than someone receiving no education and 30% less likely than those with abstinence-only education. The leader of the study, Pamela Kohler, said in a statement, “There was no evidence to suggest that abstinence-only education decreased the likelihood of ever having sex or getting pregnant.”

This comes to absolutely no surprise to us- it only further emphasizes the need for accurate information to be accessible to teens. Fortunately, there are multiple efforts to tackle this issue from new fronts online, like Scarleteen, a fabulous website dedicated to young adult sex education.

The organization believes that sex education should have a role beyond the classroom and that sex ed is about more than just birth control and safe sex. With a holistic approach to informing youth about sex, sexuality, and relationships, Scarleteen offer its nearly 30,000 users a valuable resource to answer anonymous questions and provide a fun forum for wide ranging sex topics.

And for that, they are our Repro Hero of the Week. Bravo, Scarleteen!