ProgressOhio

On September 29, 2009 Senator Teresa Fedor and Representative Tyrone Yates came together in the Ladies' Gallery of the Ohio Statehouse to formally introduce the Ohio Prevention First Act..

Senator Fedor's statement on Senate Bill 176.

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The Ohio Prevention First Act is a comprehensive bill that would increase access to family planning and comprehensive sex education in Ohio.  

The provisions of the bill include:

• Forbid a health insurance company from limiting or excluding coverage for FDA-approved prescription contraception if the policy covers other prescription drugs or devices.
• Require sex education classes to provide students with medically accurate information about abstinence, contraception and condom use as ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and STD's including HIV/AIDS.
• Create a teen pregnancy prevention state task force that would recommend medically accurate and scientifically proven effective programs for reducing Ohio's teen pregnancy rate.
• Require a pharmacy to dispense any prescribed drug, devise, or over-the-counter medication in stock without delay, consistent with the normal time frame.
• Ensure that sexual assault victims have access to emergency contraception and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases in all hospital emergency rooms.
• Require the Department of Health to create and make available on their website, materials to educate medical professionals and the general public about emergency contraception.