Planned Parenthood Celebrates 2008 “Back Up Your Birth Control”

Planned Parenthood Celebrates 2008 “Back Up Your Birth Control” Campaign Day of Action To Ensure Access to and Awareness of Emergency Contraception

Washington, DC — Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) today celebrates the 2008 Back Up Your Birth Control Campaign Day of Action to raise awareness of emergency contraception (EC), a safe and effective backup birth control option for women and teens. In honor of the Day of Action, Planned Parenthood launched a new YouTube video to highlight the availability of emergency contraception at Planned Parenthood affiliate health centers across the United States (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fWNk8CyoeU). Despite the effectiveness of EC, many women, including teens, continue to be denied access to this essential form of contraception.

“Emergency contraception is safe and effective, and Planned Parenthood is committed to making sure every woman and teen knows about this backup birth control option,” said PPFA President Cecile Richards. "Every woman deserves full access to every option available to prevent unintended pregnancy.”

EC lowers the risk of pregnancy when started within 120 hours of unprotected intercourse. The sooner backup birth control is taken, the better it works, making timely access critically important. Nevertheless, the FDA restricts young women's access to EC by requiring a prescription for EC for anyone under age 18.

“With as many as 750,000 teens becoming pregnant each year, it is time for all of us to take action and ensure our young people have information on and access to affordable birth control, including emergency contraception,” Richards said.

For more information about EC, please visit www.plannedparenthood.org.

Contra Costa Times: Alarming STD Rates - 3/17/08

Contra Costa Times

WHAT DOES IT SAY about a culture when one of every four girls between the ages of 14 and 19 has a sexually transmitted disease?
What does it say about that culture's failure to teach girls self-respect and self-esteem that makes them value themselves as something other than sexual objects?
That is what all Americans -- not just those with teen daughters -- should be asking in the wake of the shocking study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC researchers found that out of a test sample of 800 girls, 25 percent tested positive for STDs. We're talking about trichomoniasis, genital herpes, chlamydia or the human papillomavirus.
One of two African-American teens had an STD, compared with 20 percent of whites and Latinos, respectively.
Proponents of expanding sex education in public schools say the CDC findings offer proof that we need to make condoms and birth control pills more readily available for teen girls in public schools.
Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of American, proclaimed, "The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price."
True, despite the Bush administration's suggestions to the contrary, abstinence-only programs don't work.
"Just say no" has little chance against a teen's raging hormones. We need real sex education classes in schools.
However, we also need to do more to discourage our girls, and boys, from having sex when they're not mature enough to take proper precautions or handle the consequences.
How do we get through to teens when everything in our culture encourages them to engage in dangerous, high-risk behavior?
We believe public health officials around the country must launch an aggressive public advertising campaign warning of the risk of STDs -- just as there has been a national effort to crack down on teen smoking.
Many teens are ignorant about the risks. Girls and boys need to be told, for instance, that they can become infected through oral sex as well as intercourse.
It is only through a steady bombardment of messages -- to counter the constant barrage of a sex-soaked culture -- that we can begin to change teen attitudes.
Many parents are in denial. No one wants to believe that their child has a venereal disease. These parents need to get a grip.
Nearly 3 million teen girls across the nation are believed to be carrying STDs, and many don't even know it.
Some STDs can damage a woman's reproductive organs and even cause cervical cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Parents must have candid conversations with their children and make sure they have access to sex education in school. Their lives may depend on it.

Study: 1 in 4 teens has an STD - 3/11/08

Study: 1 in 4 teen girls has an STD

Story Highlights

First study of its kind shows nearly 3 million teen girls have an STD

HPV, which can cause cervical cancer, is the most prevalent

Nearly half of all African American females tested had at least one STD

Doctors: Screening, vaccination, prevention among highest health priorities

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls -- nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

About half of the girls acknowledged having sex; among them, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.

For many, the numbers most likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD," said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on adolescence.

But the study highlights what many doctors who treat teens see every day, Blythe said.

Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said the data, from 2003-04, probably reflect current rates of infection.

"High STD rates among young women, particularly African-American young women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk," Douglas said.

The CDC's Dr. Kevin Fenton said given that STDs can cause infertility and cervical cancer in women, "screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities."

The study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally representative data on 838 girls who participated in a 2003-04 government health survey. Teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and herpes simplex virus, 2 percent.

Blythe said the results are similar to previous studies examining rates of those diseases individually.

The results were prepared for release Tuesday at a CDC conference in Chicago on preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

HPV can cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting several HPV strains recently became available, but Douglas said it likely has not yet had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in teen girls.

Chlamydia and trichomoniasis can be treated with antibiotics. The CDC recommends annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under age 25. It also recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls aged 11-12 years, and catch-up shots for females aged 13 to 26.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has similar recommendations.

Douglas said screening tests are underused in part because many teens don't think they're at risk, but also, some doctors mistakenly think, '"Sexually transmitted diseases don't happen to the kinds of patients I see."'

Blythe said some doctors also are reluctant to discuss STDs with teen patients or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would have to be told of the results.

The American Academy of Pediatrics supports confidential teen screening, she said.