Advocates for Youth’s Adolescent Contraceptive Access Initiative is founded on the belief that sexually active teens and young adults have the right to accurate information about contraception and condoms and access to safe, confidential, and affordable family planning services. Advocates provides information, resources, training, and networking opportunities to both youth and professionals to ensure that these rights are safeguarded.

Did you know?

• Despite recent increases in teen pregnancy rates, data shows that between 1990 and 2004, U.S. pregnancy rates declined almost 40 percent among 15- to 19-year-old women. One study attributed 86 percent of the long-term decline in teen pregnancies to increased contraceptive use and 14 percent to increased abstinence.
• In another study, 83 percent of sexually active teens indicated that mandatory parental notification would cause them to stop using some or all confidential sexual health services; 57 percent said they would stop using hormonal contraception and use condoms instead; 29 percent said they would have unprotected sex. Only one percent indicated that they would stop having sex.

Advocates’ Strategies

• Collaborating with State-Based Coalitions—Advocates for Youth works intensively each year with statewide teen pregnancy prevention organizations to increase young people's awareness of and access to contraception, including emergency contraception (EC). Advocates for Youth offers resources, technical assistance, networking, and training to selected state coalitions.
• Assisting Health Care Providers, Sex Educators, and Other Youth-Serving Professionals—The Adolescent Contraception Clearinghouse analyzes the latest research on contraception and adolescents; develops case studies on model programs; provides technical assistance; offers lesson plans; conducts public education campaigns, including public service announcements, radio tours, and press outreach; monitors coverage of contraception in teen-focused magazines; and provides issue briefs and other educational materials on contraception.
• Offering Education and Outreach to Policy Makers—Advocates for Youth tracks contraceptive-related legislation; provides outreach and education to legislators and other policy makers.
• Mobilizing and Educating Youth—Using the Internet, Advocates for Youth encourages young people to take an active role in advocating at local, state, and national levels for their right to access contraception. The Web sites, http://www.youthresource.com/; http://www.mysistahs.org/; and http://www.ambientejoven.org/ offer peer education and materials written by youth for youth on reproductive and sexual health issues.
• Managing the South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative — Advocates is currently piloting a multi-year initiative to increase awareness of, demand for, and access to contraception, including emergency EC among young women ages 16 to 24 in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Initiative uses new media technologies such as text messaging to reach young people with sexual health messages and is applying lessons learned from the campaign to other states.
• Collaborating with West Virginia FREE, Mount Pleasant Community Zone and Jewish Renaissance Foundation – Advocates for Youth is working in partnership with three organzations to raise awareness of and increase access to contraception through a youth-directed public education campaign and trainings for pharmacists, family planning clinics, and rape crisis centers.
• Increasing Access to Contraception for Teens in Ohio and New Jersey – Advocates is collaborating with the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Plain Talk Initiative and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association to improve access to condoms and contraception in two Plain Talk communities, Perth Amboy, New Jersey and the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Advocates is using a community engagement strategy to ensure that teens receive accurate information about birth control and have access to safe, confidential, and affordable family planning services.

Partner community organizations in improving contraceptive access for young women include:

• West Virginia FREE

Resources

• Training and Workshops—Advocates for Youth's workshops focus on strategies for improving access to contraception for teens; youth-friendly clinical practices; outreach to diverse ethnic teenage populations; involving males in sexual health programs; minor consent and confidentiality laws; linking youth-serving organizations and family planning clinics; managing controversy; model programs for providing EC to teens; effective collaboration between health care providers and pharmacists; building youth-adult partnerships; and statistics and trends related to teens' contraceptive use.
• Publications—Advocates for Youth offers fact sheets, issue briefs, lesson plans, and teen pamphlets related to contraception.

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