Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

Source

Planned Parenthood Arizona, Inc.

Published

February 25, 2009

This bill goes too far and proposes an extraordinary array of new and complicated regulations on healthcare providers. With this bill, politicians will intervene between women, families and their physician. House bill 2564 hurts more than half of Arizona’s residents – women.

“In the midst of the current economic crisis, when every job and every home is at risk, it is irresponsible to propose legislation that makes healthcare less accessible and more expensive,” said Bryan Howard, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona. “Arizona does not have an abortion problem, we have a prevention problem.”

The issue about abortion in Arizona that is not being addressed is the high rate of unplanned pregnancies. If the legislature truly wants to deal with abortion while protecting the health of their communities, they should support house bill 2544, which offers the real solution: prevention-focused education.

Arizona has the second highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation with over 100 per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 getting pregnant each year. But, unplanned pregnancies aren’t the only problem, one in four Arizona teen girls already has a sexually transmitted infection (STI) and one out of five sexually active youth will contract an STI in the next year. Arizonans are facing a preventable public health problem.

While some legislators are focusing on restricting access to vital health care services, house bill 2544 addresses the need for responsible information and prevention as a way to combat the increase of unplanned pregnancy. 

“Comprehensive sex education stresses abstinence and responsible decision making, but also includes information on contraception and avoiding sexually transmitted infections,” says Representative Kyrsten Sinema, the bill’s main sponsor. “Both the evidence and the American public strongly support using this approach to help young people transition from adolescence to adulthood safely and responsibly.”

Planned Parenthood Arizona believes it is time for Arizona schools to end ineffective “abstinence-only” programs that don’t work. It is time to provide instruction in comprehensive sex education that teach abstinence as well as contraception, healthy communication, responsible decision making, and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.  To that end, we enthusiastically support house bill 2544.

Planned Parenthood Arizona is the leading sexual health organization in Arizona. We provide health care, education and outreach services to over 100,000 men, women, teens and parents annually. Planned Parenthood operates 20 health center locations in Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, Globe, Prescott and Yuma. For more information, please visit http://www.ppaz.org/.

###

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider and advocate of high-quality, affordable health care for women, men, and young people, as well as the nation’s largest provider of sex education. With more than 700 health centers across the country, Planned Parenthood organizations serve all patients with care and compassion, with respect and without judgment. Through health centers, programs in schools and communities, and online resources, Planned Parenthood is a trusted source of reliable health information that allows people to make informed health decisions. We do all this because we care passionately about helping people lead healthier lives.

Jo Nestor

(602) 481-0663

[email protected]

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of required cookies when utilizing our site; this includes necessary cookies that help our site to function (such as remembering your cookie preference settings). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.