"Advocates for Youth" leaves out male DV victims

Came across this email from a group called Advocates for Youth. Some of the topics discussed in it have been mentioned here on MANN already. Please take a minute and *politely* contact AFY and ask them to take the gender-blinders off and include males (after all, they are young at some point as well) as imperatively in their campaigns as they do females. Email follows:

We have some GREAT news to share.

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that starting in August 2012, all new health insurance plans will be required to cover contraception at no cost — including condoms, birth control pills, contraceptive shots, and IUDs. This means that co-payments, which have long been a barrier to many women accessing contraception, will no longer be an issue for women with health insurance!

This historic shift is due in LARGE part to your incredible work reaching out to elected officials and members of the Obama administration, sending letters, and collecting petitions on this issue. Your efforts helped to ensure that the needs of women were the center of this debate — despite conservative attempts to derail the process through manufactured controversy and intentional misinformation. Here at Advocates for Youth, we know — as you do — that contraception is preventive care...and now insurance plans will reflect this basic reality!

The other sexual and reproductive health recommendations from the Institute of Medicine — many of which are groundbreaking in their own right — will also become standard! In addition to no-cost contraception, women will also be able to access the following services without a co-pay:

- Well-woman visits;
- Sexually transmitted infection counseling;
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening and counseling;
- Domestic violence screening and counseling.

We can't thank you enough for all your hard work on this issue. These new guidelines are a huge step forward in making sure that all women, including young women, will be able to access the full range of sexual and reproductive health care services they need.

Thanks again!

Sarah Audelo
Senior Manager of Domestic Policy
Advocates for Youth