• Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA-9) introduced the REAL Act which would provide young people with the tools necessary to make informed decisions, build healthy relationships, and have the information to protect themselves against unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS.
• The REAL Act would set up a dedicated federal funding stream ($50 million) to provide federal grants to states for the purpose of conducting comprehensive sexuality education programs.
• This education would be evidence-based, medically accurate, age-appropriate, and provide full information about both abstinence andcontraception, among other topics.

• The United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world. For the first time in more than a decade, the nation’s teen pregnancy rate rose 3% in 2006, at the same time that teens were receiving less information about contraception in schools and their use of contraceptives was declining.[1] 
• While young people in the U.S., aged 15–25, make up only one-quarter of the sexually active population, they contract about half of the 19 million STDs annually.[2]
• Young people aged 13–24 account for nearly one-sixth of the estimated 56,300 new HIV infections each year. One young person every hour is infected with HIV. [3]
• Teens need accurate, complete information to help them both postpone sexual activity and protect themselves if they become sexually active. 

• Comprehensive sex education includes age-appropriate, medically accurate information on a broad set of topics related to sexuality including human development, relationships, decision making, abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention.
• Comprehensive sex education funded under the REAL Act would:

• Comprehensive programs about sexuality—medically accurate, age-appropriate education that includes information about both abstinence and contraception—have been found to be effective in delaying the onset of sexual intercourse, reducing the number of sexual partners, and increasing contraception and condom use among teens.
• Teens who receive sex education that includes abstinence and contraception are more likely than those who receive abstinence-only-until-marriage messages to delay sexual activity and use contraception when they do become sexually active.
• In November 2007, Emerging Answers 2007, an authoritative and comprehensive review of research findings on the effectiveness of HIV and sex education programs, was released. This review of rigorously evaluated programs showed many positive results, including:[4]

• Leading public health and medical professional organizations all stress the need for sexuality education that includes messages about abstinence and provides young people with information about contraception for the prevention of teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other STIs. Some of these supporters include:

• For example, the American Medical Association “urges schools to implement comprehensive, developmentally appropriate sexuality education programs” and “supports federal funding of comprehensive sex education programs that stress the importance of abstinence in preventing unwanted teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and also teach about contraceptive choices and safer sex.[5]

• The overwhelming majority of Americans, including parents, want the federal government to fund programs that are medically accurate and age-appropriate, educate youth about both abstinence and contraception, and are based on evidence. 
• According to the results of a 2005-2006 nationally representative survey of U.S. adults published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, more than eight in 10 of those polled support comprehensive sex education.[6]
• A survey conducted by Kennedy School of Government, Kaiser Family Foundation, and National Public Radio found that over 90% of parents of middle school and high school students believe it is very or somewhat important to have sexuality education as part of the school curriculum. The vast majority polled think the federal government should fund more “comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives” instead of programs that have “abstaining from sexual activity” as their only purpose.[7]
• A majority of voters in nearly every demographic category, including Democrats, Republicans, and independents, as well as Catholics and evangelical Christians, support comprehensive sex education.[8]

Updated April 2010