Highlighting April as National STD Awareness Month

Floor Speech

Highlighting April as National STD Awareness Month

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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