The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released the latest Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data. This was the second time in a row that Colorado has had weighted data allowing us to compare trends.

Of note, the results from the 2011 data showed that:

• 33.7% of students reported being currently sexually active (a decrease of .5%)
• 60.2% of sexually active students reported that either they or their partner had used a condom during last sex (a decrease of .9%)
• 18.0% of sexually active students reported that either they or their partner had used birth control pills to prevent pregnancy before last sexual intercourse (a decrease of 1.8%)
• 12.9% of sexually active students had not used any method to prevent pregnancy during last sexual intercourse (a decrease of 1%)
• 84.0% of students reported having been taught about AIDS or HIV in school (a decrease of 3%)

For more details or to view the full report, click here.

Exerpt from The Huffington Post.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Spurred by a classroom demonstration involving a sex toy, Tennessee recently enacted a pro-abstinence sex education law that is among the strictest in the nation.

The most debated section of the bill bars educators from promoting "gateway sexual activity." But supporters seemed too squeamish during floor debate to specify what that meant, so critics soon labeled it the "no holding-hands bill."

One thing missing from the debate in the Legislature was a discussion of whether the law signed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam last month really would help reduce Tennessee's high teenage pregnancy rate. Experts say it won't and warn that it leaves teenagers inadequately educated about sexuality and prevention of pregnancy and disease.

Read the rest of the article here.

Taken from RH Reality Check. Written by Norman A. Constantine, Eva S. Goldfarb, and Danny Ceballos.

A recently updated list of federally approved “evidence-based” teen pregnancy prevention programs has been causing a stir. This list specifies the programs that are eligible for federal funds and serves as the cornerstone of President Obama’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative.  Among the three programs making the list for the first time is the Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage program Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education. Our friends and fellow advocates in the adolescent sexual health promotion field have denounced this program as medically inaccurate, biased, fear- and shame-based, and otherwise inappropriate for the classroom. Here we all agree, completely. A program like this has no place in our schools and communities, and especially not with government funding.