On any given day, herds of fat, fuzzy rabbits hop lazily through the Global Connections High School campus in SeaTac's Highline School District. "Someone ditched their pets in our parking lot and all they do is breed, well, like you-know-what," explains the school receptionist with a shrug. The rabbits—cute as they are—stand as a weird totem to a similar problem: the school district's 25 pregnancies per 1,000 students, the second-highest teen pregnancy rate in King County, according to Public Health–Seattle & King County.
To address that problem, the school has teamed up with Planned Parenthood—an iconic target for GOP attacks against reproductive freedom—to host federally funded sex talks for teenagers on school grounds. On October 19, national Planned Parenthood Federation president Cecile Richards visited from Washington, DC, to sit in a circle with 16 of these teenagers in a Global Connections classroom. They freely admit that some of them are sexually active, and need to learn about proper condom and birth control use, and how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. But as Richards points out, the program is more than just a sex talk: They meet once a week to discuss communication, self-esteem, and relationships with friends and family.
But if congressional Republicans who control the House get their way, Planned Parenthood's Teen Outreach Program (TOP) won't make it through the school year. Their 2012 spending bill, introduced in the House Labor, Health, and Human Services appropriations subcommittee, eliminates federal funding for TOP—and all Planned Parenthood clinics—unless the organization agrees to stop providing abortions. In furthering their ideological agenda, the GOP also declares in their bill that TOP funds must be reserved for abstinence-only programs.
"Our methods are proven," counters Richards. "The more teenagers learn about sex and pregnancy prevention measures beyond abstinence, the more likely they are to avoid risky behavior."
In 2010, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest received the largest federal award for non-abstinence-only education in the last decade (a five-year, $20 million federal grant). Teenagers who complete the program are 52 percent less likely to get suspended and 60 percent less likely to fail a class, and they lower their risk of pregnancy by 53 percent, according to Planned Parenthood research. These students are also 60 percent less likely to drop out of school.
Democratic representative Adam Smith, whose district encompasses Global Connections, says he backs funding for the program. "The Teen Outreach Program plays a crucial role in providing access to health-care information for both young women and men," Smith says, calling it vitally important that the program continues "to receive federal assistance to provide health services, preventative care, and education to the public."
And the program is supported by students, teachers, and parents: "No parents have voiced objections to me," says Yvette Avila, the school's TOP adviser. "Everyone's been incredibly supportive, especially the teachers and [school] staff."
One student, who participated in a TOP pilot program last year, says that the experience turned her into a de facto sex-ed mentor to her friends, who constantly "ask what goes on in our [TOP] group, because they want the information but they have no one to ask."
The Republicans' House draft budget certainly won't make it through the Democrat-controlled Senate unscathed. But if nothing else, it indicates that last year's record-setting trend of attacking women's reproductive health is far from over. 
