Today on Capitol Hill Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) will formally introduce a bill that will finally authorize federal funding for comprehensive sex education.

Whereas today states can only receive funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage initiatives (that have be shown in independent studies to be a $1.5 billion failure), the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act would allow these states to receive funding to provide age-appropriate, medically accurate, science-based sex education whose real purpose is to prevent unintended teen pregnancy and transmission of STI’s, not enforce social conservative ideology and misinformation.

Despite intentional misinformation by the abstinence-only crowd, this will not “do away with teaching abstinence.” Real comprehensive sex education stresses the benefits from abstinence among teens, but realizes that necessary information about contraception should not be censored from the classroom. With teen birth rates and STI transmission on the rise, we can no longer stick our heads in the sand with abstinence-only programs.

As our own Advocates for Youth President, James Wagoner says:

“The REAL Act is a necessary first step if we are serious about providing young people the important education and information they need to make responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.”

“Growing up isn't easy and our young people find themselves in tough situations every day. They need all the information to make smart choices, and ‘abstinence-only’ programs simply aren’t working. It's time for our nation’s young people to get the education they need to take on the real life situations facing them every day”

“It’s time for us to get REAL about sex education. We should absolutely be teaching young people about abstinence, but we shouldn't be holding back information that can save lives and prevent unwanted pregnancies. Instead of ‘abstinence only,’ what we're proposing is ‘abstinence-plus.”