Policy Priorities
ICAH partners with youth and adults across Illinois to promote a positive approach to adolescent sexual health by: (1) increasing access and equity to sexual healthcare services; (2) increasing access and equity to sexuality education; and (3) ensuring support for pregnant and parenting youth so that they can complete their educational goals.
Increasing Access and Equity to Adolescent Sexual Health Services
The majority of Americans become sexually active during their adolescence and early adulthood. Yet adolescents in Illinois are systematically denied access to appropriate, effective STI and HIV prevention, sexuality education, and related health care. Policy makers must recognize that failure to provide youth these services has serious public health consequences.
- Nearly 25 percent of young women and girls have at least one of four commonly sexually transmitted infections. One in two African-American adolescent females is infected.
- Of the approximately 750,000 adolescent pregnancies nationwide each year, 82 percent are unintended. More than one-quarter end in abortion.
- In Illinois, 49 percent of female high school students and 52 percent of males reported having had sexual intercourse.
Youth will continue to put themselves at risk unless they have access to a full range of reproductive health services, including youth-friendly clinics, birth control, and disease prevention techniques. All young people—immigrant youth, youth of color, low-income youth, LGBTQ youth, and pregnant and parenting youth—deserve access to affordable, quality sexual health care.
- ICAH supports condom availability in schools throughout the state. Correct, consistent condom use remains the most effective way to prevent the spread of HIV and other STIs among youth, and availability does not increase sexual activity.
- ICAH supports the rights of young women to consent confidentially to reproductive health care, including abortion. This right is under attack at both the state and federal levels.
- ICAH supports the use and availability of emergency contraception, a safe and effective means of preventing pregnancy currently available to women 18 and older without a prescription. ICAH is working to establish non-prescriptive access for youth.
- ICAH supports the use and availability of HPV vaccines and the right of youth to consent to vaccination. The human papillomavirus is the primary cause of cervical cancer.
Increasing Access and Equity to Sexuality Education
Sexuality is a critical component of human development, culture, identity, and relationships. All too often, sexuality education is relegated to biology and/or ideology. Research shows that age-appropriate, medically accurate sexuality education equips youth to make healthy, responsible decisions. Yet no state or federal funds are dedicated to such education in Illinois. Instead, since 1998, Congress has appropriated over $1 billion toward unproven, Title V abstinence-only programs.
- In 2007, the Department of Human Services and Illinois community-based organizations received $8,816,000 in federal funds for abstinence-only programs.
- No federal program both emphasizes the importance of waiting to have sex and provides complete, accurate, age-appropriate contraception information.
Youth have the right to responsible sexual health education that provides the information, skills, and resources necessary for informed, healthy decision-making.
- ICAH supports the rejection of Title V funding in Illinois and opposes public investment in abstinence-only programs, which have been found to be ineffective.
- ICAH supports federal and state sexual health education legislation, promoting legislative and administrative solutions to the lack of effective education in Illinois.
- ICAH supports grassroots efforts to change local sexual health education policies, encouraging school boards to pass and implement policies requiring such education. In April 2006, Chicago Public Schools passed a policy that applies throughout the district, and ICAH will continue to work with CPS to ensure its implementation.
Ensuring Support for Pregnant and Parenting Youth to Meet their Educational Goals
For pregnant and parenting youth, finishing school is critical to lifelong success. Yet only 60 percent of young mothers complete their high school education or receive a GED. Pregnant and parenting youth who drop out are less likely to return to school or attain self-sufficiency, and their children face decreased odds of success in school.
- In 2006, adolescent women accounted for nearly 10 percent of all Illinois births.
- More than half of teens who become pregnant drop out between eighth and twelfth grade.
Well-funded, accessible programs and services are essential for pregnant and parenting youth to complete their education.
- ICAH supports funding for programs and services that help pregnant and parenting youth finish school. For FY 2006, CPS actually decreased its budget for such services, allocating approximately $1.5 million—down from $5 million in 2002.
- ICAH supports its own Young Parent Alliance, a group of pregnant and parenting youth and allies. YPA works to increase public awareness of the challenges faced by pregnant and parenting youth and to implement an array of educational and supportive CPS services.
