[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6963]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1530
           HIGHLIGHTING APRIL AS NATIONAL STD AWARENESS MONTH

  (Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize April as 
National STD Awareness Month. As you may know, the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention recently released a disturbing statistic. One in 
four young women between the ages of 14 to 19 has a sexually 
transmitted disease, and it is likely that she does not even know it. 
This amounts to an estimated 3.2 million teen girls in America with at 
least one of four common STDs, including chlamydia and HPV.
  The good news is that these diseases and infections are preventable. 
We have a responsibility to make sure that parents and teenagers have 
the resources they need to make smart choices for their health and 
well-being. This includes access to education and access to affordable 
preventive health care and screening.
  As a Co-Chair of the Young Women's Task Force for the Women's Caucus, 
I call on my colleagues to take note of the CDC's startling statistic, 
and I congratulate Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones for introducing 
a resolution supporting National STD Awareness Month.

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