August 9, 2007

Reproductive Health in The State

Two great letters to the editor have been published in The State this week. Murray Vincent, Ed.D, nationally recognized for his successful Barnwell County Teen Pregnancy Prevention Council, was published on Saturday. His letter entitled “Comprehensive family planning key to better, healthier S.C.” stresses the importance of ensuring that community-based family planning programs and clinical services provided by DHEC be accessible to all South Carolinians. Today, Lanita Patterson, Planned Parenthood Healthy Systems’ state-wide health educator writes “Abstinence-only programs waste money”. The letter addresses the fact that “$800,000 is included in our state’s budget this year for abstinence-only programs” and stresses the importance of providing medically accurate information to our teens. It is wonderful to see the media covering these two important issues: reproductive health education and access.
A big thank you to Dr. Vincent & Ms. Patterson for writing these letters. We need more community advocates writing letters supporting teenage pregnancy prevention. For tips on doing so, please visit our members’ only media toolkit.