by Sarah Audelo, Senior Manager, Domestic Policy

We have some GREAT news to share.

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that starting in August 2012, all new health insurance plans will be required to cover contraception with no co-pay — including condoms, birth control pills, contraceptive shots, and IUDs. This means that co-payments, which have long been a barrier to many women accessing contraception, will no longer be an issue for women with health insurance!

This historic shift is due in LARGE part to your incredible work reaching out to elected officials and members of the Obama administration, sending letters, and collecting petitions on this issue. Your efforts helped to ensure that the needs of women were the center of this debate — despite conservative attempts to derail the process through manufactured controversy and intentional misinformation. Here at Advocates for Youth, we know — as you do — that contraception is preventive care...and now insurance plans will reflect this basic reality!

We're excited to announce the Red Hot+ video contest, a joint project of Amplify and the Red Hot Organization.

Red Hot+ is an opportunity for young artists and filmmakers to explore our unique experiences growing up with and being impacted by HIV and AIDS. More than two decades after the HIV/AIDS crisis began, our generation has its own stories to tell. Love stories and elegies, as well as tales of quiet defiance, stigma, and public confrontation. Through original short films and PSAs, we hope that the Red Hot+ contest will help spark a new conversation about HIV and AIDS.

We have some great prizes lined up for this contest. Four winners will receive a $2,500 cash prize and a trip to New York City, where their films will be featured as a part of the Red Hot Organization's 20th anniversary celebration during World AIDS Day 2011.

by Sarah Audelo, Senior Manager, Domestic Policy

In a new report, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has called for birth control to be available without a co-pay for all U.S. health insurance plans.

As the Affordable Care Act (health care reform) starts to take effect, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked the independent, non-partisan Institute of Medicine to recommend additional preventive care services that all women should be entitled to at no cost under their insurance plans. These recommendations from the IOM are a critical first step — but their recommendations must now be formally accepted and implemented by HHS and the Obama Administration.

Tell the Department of Health and Human Services AND President Obama to stand up for women and accept these recommendations from the Institute of Medicine.

If enacted, the Institute of Medicine's recommendations will have an enormous impact on the health and lives of women — particularly young women — across the U.S.

by Emily Bridges, Director, Public Information Services

USA Today has published two articles posing some different theories about why HIV rates are so high in the Southern United States, each of them informative but troubling.

As we know, the South suffers from the highest rates in the United States, with the virus concentrated in the African American/Black community. No one reason exists for the disparity in rates – rather, it is a combination of a number of social factors, including poverty, lack of education, and lack of access to health care. USA Today’s analysis also found that of counties stricken with both poverty and high HIV rates, most are located in the South. Yet the paper quoted HIV researcher Harold Henderson thusly:

"The age when kids first become sexually active is pretty young in the Deep South," he says. "That has a lot to do with the fact parents don't do a good job of (educating their kids about sex). And if you happen to live in a broken home, with drug use and poverty involved, you may not be getting the parental supervision you need."

The quote bears unpacking because it is so laden with myth.

by Sarah Audelo, Senior Manager, Domestic Policy

The Public Religion Research Institute has released new research on the attitudes of millennial youth (18-29) toward abortion and a number of other social issues including gay marriage.

It's important to note at the outset, that millennial youth favor abortion access in their local communities by a significantly higher percentage than any other age group in the population — 68% for millennial youth compared to 58% for the general public. It’s also important to note that millennial youth are generally more supportive of abortion across all the other categories measured in the poll compared to other age cohorts.

The question is, why?

Abby Rosenstein, State Strategies Coordinator

This May marked the fifth national gathering of state sex education leaders at the State Summit in Washington, DC. State Summit V brought together 75 participants from 25 states and the District of Columbia. The group was diverse—hailing from teen pregnancy organizations, AIDS service organizations, reproductive justice organizations, youth service organizations, and religious groups, as well as state departments of education and state education associations—and participants had much to share and learn from one another.

 Advocates for sex education have been through a lot of ups and downs in the last few years, and at this year’s conference, participants strategized about preserving and making the most of wins in federal funding and state policy, as well as moving forward collaboratively for continued and sustainable successes in the states.