Healthy Teens Act Fact Sheet

Passage of the Healthy Teens Act will ensure that Connecticut’s youth have access to medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education providing them with the necessary skills to make safe and responsible choices surrounding their sexual health.

Few Connecticut students get comprehensive, age-appropriate, medically accurate information about sexual health before they become sexually active.[i]

§         70% (7,665) of reported Chlamydia cases in CT in 2006 were among young people aged 10-24. Left untreated, Chlamydia is a major contributor to infertility later in life.  55% (1,463) of reported Gonorrhea cases in CT in 2006 were among young people aged 10-24.[ii]

§         The CT Department of Public Health reported the percentage of state births to teens was 6.9% in 2004. However, the rate is significantly higher in Hartford (20%), New Britain (16%), Windham (15.4%), New London (14%), New Haven (13.6%), Killingly (13.6%), Bridgeport (13.2%), Norwich (12.5%), and Putnam (9.9%).

§         Teens and young adults under the age of 25 continue to be at risk for HIV and most young people are infected through unprotected sex[iii]. African Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV infection, accounting for 55% of all HIV infections reported among persons aged 13–24[iv].  The lifetime per person HIV care cost is now $618,900.[v]

§         An estimated 80,000 CT high school students report they have had sexual intercourse and nearly 80% first had sexual intercourse between the ages of 13 and 16.[vi]

Many parents don’t talk with their children about sex, because they are uncomfortable, don’t know what to say, and mistakenly think that schools are doing the job[vii]. However, Connecticut has no designated funding stream for comprehensive sexuality education in schools.

§         94 percent of Connecticut residents agree that, "In the era of AIDS, young people need information and skills from sex education to protect their health and lives."[viii]

§         Over $1 million of federal funded Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) comes into CT each year via two Community Based Organizations. Nationally, since CBAE began in 2001 it has increased over 450% to a total expenditure level of $113 million.[ix]

§         Research shows that teenagers who receive sex education that includes discussions on contraception are more likely than those who receive abstinence-only messages to delay sexual activity and to use contraceptives and condoms when they do become sexually active. In addition, the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence suggests that addressing abstinence and contraception does not increase sexual activity.[x]

§         Research has shown that comprehensive sexuality education programs result in consistent condom use among teenagers who are sexually active.[xi]^{,[xii],[xiii]} This is particularly important considering 64% of sexually active teenagers in CT didn’t use condoms the last time they had sex.⁶

§         A recent study of four abstinence education programs, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., found that the programs had no effect on the sexual abstinence of youth.[xiv] A recent Congressional review found that 80% of the most popular abstinence-only curricula contain false or misleading information about reproductive health.[xv] Studies have also determined that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs actually increase risks of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections by discouraging contraceptive use.

The following medical and public health professional organizations solidly endorse providing comprehensive sex education that offers information about a range of sexual health and contraceptive options, including, but not limited to, abstinence for teenagers in their schools.[xvi]^{,[xvii],[xviii],[xix]}