To countless Arizonans, our state is the ideal place to live, work and rear a family. In many regards, it is. However, Arizona has an acute sexual health problem that almost no one wants to acknowledge.

In an ideal world teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease don’t exist.

Reality in Arizona is that ours is the third highest teen pregnancy and birth rate in the nation. Thirty per cent of girls who drop out of school do so because they are pregnant. Some sexually transmitted diseases have increased more than threefold in the last five years. The need for teaching the benefits of abstinence is evident. Yet, more than 40 per cent of students report they are sexually active by the time they reach 9th grade. Sexually active teens must receive sexual health information that includes information on abstinence and accurate information about preventing pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted disease.

Planned Parenthood supports S1096, which requires that schools that are going to teach sexual health must convey medically accurate information. While it won’t get information to every young person who needs it, S1096 will at least ensure that the information our schools do teach is usefully accurate.

In an ideal world sexual assault doesn’t exist.

Reality is one in four women will be the victims of sexual assault in their lifetime. Every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted. Sexual assault survivors are victimized a second time if they are not told about and offered the health care that can prevent a pregnancy resulting from their assault.

Planned Parenthood supports H2336, which requires that sexual assault survivors be told about emergency contraception, which is safe, legal and does not harm an existing pregnancy.

In an ideal world, access to all legal health care procedures is equally protected.

The reality in Arizona is that conservative lawmakers routinely single out health care intended for young women for special regulation. There’s no evidence that suggests young women are less equipped to make informed decisions about their health. And Arizona law already requires that every patient’s health care decisions “be made voluntarily and without coercion, and the patient must have a clear understanding of the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment alternatives or non-treatment, along with a full understanding of the nature of the disease and the prognosis.”

Planned Parenthood opposes S1077, which requires that women seeking abortion health care delay their decision and their procedure. By creating a mandatory waiting period, S1077 questions a woman’s ability to make informed health care decisions, further restricts women’s access to reproductive health care services and invades women’s privacy. In singling out abortion for this additional government restriction, the bill harms all health care patients by avoiding setting a similar standard for other more risk-laden treatments and procedures.

The statistics are startling. While sometimes hard to face, we must confront our reality if we want to preserve healthy and quality lives in Arizona. Legislators can no longer look the other way. There is much that needs to be accomplished. The opportunity to make lasting change for the immediate future of thousands of women – and Arizona generations to come – is here. Arizona’s leaders must recognize that the time to act responsibly about our reality is now.

Bryan S. Howard is president and CEO Planned Parenthood of Central & Northern Arizona.