Teen pregnancy is out of control. Too many young people have irresponsible sex. The STD rates are skyrocketing. The media is feeding kids harmful ideas. The list goes on and on. These are the statements people, and politicians, like to repeat over and over when criticizing young people. But what are they doing to change all of this? Are they mandating sex ed. in public schools? Are they making sexual healthcare and resources more affordable and accessible? The answer is no. Less than half of the 50 states require their public schools to teach sexual education. Even less require the information taught to be medically accurate. Many people, such as undocumented immigrants, are being denied insurance and cannot afford to see a doctor, much less …show more content…
One of the biggest issues they combat is the stigma around abortions and birth control. Planned Parenthood Action strives to educate the public on the importance of giving women family planning information and resources. Providing access to sexual healthcare for the underprivileged is another big issue. For example, undocumented immigrants face many hurdles when trying to receive health care. Planned Parenthood aims to change policies that unfairly hurts people's’ health. Also, Planned Parenthood promotes comprehensive sex education in schools. Comprehensive sex ed. is the teaching of evidence-based sexual education that provides all information on sexual health. Sex ed. does not seem like a very important issue to most people. Many adults think that it would promote sex before marriage and many kids do not want to sit through a class about sex. But however awkward it will be to sit through a sex ed. class, it would probably be more awkward to have to tell your parents that you’re pregnant at age sixteen or to tell your partner that you have an STD. Comprehensive sex education programs, like those run by Planned Parenthood, are so incredibly important because it gives teens the life skills to make healthy choices about sex. That means waiting longer before having sex, and practicing safe sex when you do have …show more content…
What can the average person do to make sure people have access to affordable reproductive and sexual healthcare? The obvious answer is donate money to your local Planned Parenthood centers. Small donations can have big impacts. But that is not the only way to help keep the organization running. Surprisingly, the most important thing you can do is learn. Learn more about the importance of reproductive health. Learn about Planned Parenthood’s mission statements. Learn about how hard it is for low income women to get comprehensive health care. Learn about how most of the arguments made against Planned Parenthood are based on bias and are just simply not true. Then you have to combat against the ignorance spewing out of our politicians’ mouths. Try not to spread false information about Planned Parenthood and encourage others to learn about this worthwhile cause. This issue may seem completely in the hands of the politicians, but we can do something,