A Patchwork of Access: Young People Deserve Better

rePROs Fight Back

Young people deserve access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare—but those needs aren’t always easy to acquire in the United States. Diana Thu-Thao Rhodes, Vice President of Policy, Partnerships, and Organizing at Advocates for Youth, sits down to talk with us about the barriers young people face when in need of sex education and sexual and reproductive health services.

Young people’s access to sex education in the United States isn’t a pretty picture; a patchwork of legislation at the federal and state level impact sex education, meaning there isn’t an overarching federal bill that mandates safe sex education. State policies include a wide-range of practices—for example, 39 states and D.C. mandate some form of sex education or HIV education, but what is included in those lesson plans vary across the country. State-by-state and school-district-by-school-district lessons could be abstinence-based, abstinence-stressed, or must include teachings on certain topics, leading to entirely different education experiences based on where young people live and go to school.

On top of facing a patchwork of sex education legislation, young people feel disproportionate barriers to accessible sexual and reproductive healthcare. Many young people may not feel that they can make their parents aware of their healthcare needs, may not have access to transportation or money, or may not feel supported by the current health infrastructure where they live if they are transgender or gender expansive. Similar barriers make young people jump through a variety of hoops to access abortion care, as well. In addition, if a young person does not want to inform a parent or guardian in a state that requires parental notification, young people must seek a judicial bypass, a legal process that necessitates permission from a judge to receive the procedure. Six-week abortion bans, like the one recently passed in Texas, will undoubtedly and unduly impact young people who need access to abortion care.

To better support young people in their access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and sex education, we must advocate for policies that ensure young people’s confidentiality when accessing sexual health services, pass legislation that expands sexual health service access across the country such as the Real Education and Access for Healthy Youth Act (REAHYA) and the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), address state-by-state patchwork comprehensive sex education legislation, remove forced parental-involvement laws, allowance of over-the-counter oral contraception without age restriction, and strengthen protections for LGBTQ youth and gender-affirming healthcare. A culture shift is required to support the health and rights of young people—young people’s sexuality is a natural part of adolescent development and cannot be shamed, ignored, or met with silence.

Links

Advocates for Youth on Twitter

Advocates for Youth on Facebook

Abortion Out Loud campaign

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