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

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!

After more than a decade of legal battles, a federal appeals court in Illinois has ruled to uphold a previously unenforced state parental notification law. Effective August 4th, young women under 18 will be required to notify a parent or guardian 48 hours before getting an abortion.

While the law does not require that teens receive consent from a parent, even notification can create unnecessary and dangerous barriers to accessing reproductive health services for young women. Parental notification laws assume that teens can safely involve their family in the decision to terminate a pregnancy—which is sadly not always the case. Also, most teens already involve their parents in their decision to terminate a pregnancy. For the small minority who do not involve parents in this decision, it is usually for good reason, like in cases of abuse or incest. And, like other abortion restrictions—such as mandatory counseling and waiting periods—parental notification restrictions tend to result in more second-trimester abortions.

Soo Ji Min, Executive Director of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, a grantee of the National Institute’s Urban Initiative, issued a strong statement condemning the ruling:

The American Medical Associate reports that some young women will go to extreme and unhealthy lengths to keep pregnancies secret, including running away, obtaining illegal abortions, or self-inducing abortions. Over half of young women who do not involve a parent in their decision to seek an abortion cite fear of abuse or eviction. Requiring parental notification or consent can expose young women to these risks.

Parental notification laws like this one are just another restriction designed to prevent women from accessing their legal right to an abortion—and end up doing more harm than good.

By Maya Dusenbery