Washington, D.C. just released the results of the nation’s first standardized test measuring students’ knowledge of health and human sexuality. Although high school students were able to answer about 75 percent of the questions correctly, the results confirm that they knew less about practical solutions for sexual health issues, such as how to locate health information and assistance.

The District’s education department administered the 50-question health exam to more than 11,000 students in the city’s public schools and public charter schools last spring, developing age-appropriate assessments for students in grades 5, 8, and 10. Overall, D.C. students correctly answered about 62 percent of the questions on the exam, which focused on health topics like emotional wellness, disease prevention, and sex education. But fifth and eighth graders aren’t as educated about the human body as they should be, and high schoolers could only identify about 40 percent of the correct answers about where they can access more health resources if they need them.

Adam Tenner, the executive director of the community health organization Metro TeenAids, told the Washington Post that although the District’s students still have room for improvement, the exam does represent an important milestone for sexual education efforts:

“In a city with such high rates of HIV, teen pregnancy and STDs — let alone obesity and other diseases that plague our community — we’re not where we should be,” Tenner said in an interview. [...]

But the exam was also hailed by advocates as a step toward understanding — and ultimately decreasing — the city’s high rates of childhood obesity, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy.

Tenner called the test “historic” and praised officials for their willingness to begin examining the root causes of the city’s health problems. Now the question is what needs to be done to make sure schools have what they need to improve health education, he said.

Public schools in Washington, D.C. are required to include medically-accurate sexual health instruction in their health curricula, including information about sexual orientation and HIV prevention, although parents may choose to opt their children out of those courses. But 38 states across the country don’t currently mandate sexual education in schools, and often push misleading, shame-based “abstinence only” programs instead — with serious consequences for their students. One recent survey of sexual education curricula in New York, which doesn’t have specific standards for medically accurate instruction materials about sexual health in classrooms, found that public schools had “shocking gaps” in their sex ed courses.

Although the District’s students are already ahead of the national average, there is still room for improvement, as Tenner points out. Other surveys have found that the majority of college students don’t know how to use the Internet to figure out how to locate contraception, the same lack of knowledge about accessing health resources that D.C. high school students revealed. More comprehensive sexual education curricula could help prevent D.C. students from being in the same situation once they reach their undergrad years.

A Michigan congressman used his Facebook page last week to announce that he is planning to introduce legislation that would further limit access to abortions for women in Washington, DC.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) posted that his bill would “requir[e] minors in D.C. to receive their parents’ consent before having an abortion, prohibits non-doctors from performing abortions, and provides conscience protections for individuals and health care facilities in D.C. that refuse to perform abortions.”

House Republicans have long sought to ban abortion in the District. The House Republican budget for DC prevents “the city from using its own taxpayer money to pay for abortions for low-income women” and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) recently introduced legislation that would ban abortions 20 weeks after gestation.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) condemned the latest Republican restrictions:

On Tuesday evening, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) decried Amash’s plans and ongoing efforts by the GOP to restrict abortions solely in the District.

“Rep. Amash is spending time in the House meddling in my district, instead of attending to the needs of his own constituents,” she wrote in a statement. “His bill would overturn our local laws with no accountability to our residents.”

Amash’s bill could have a particularly debilitating effect on women who have been raped or are victims of incest, while more expansive conscience clauses significantly limit access to abortion procedures.

A week after Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) held Congressional hearings on a bill that would prevent doctors in D.C. from performing abortions after 20 weeks, protesters descended on the Arizona Congressman’s office — who represents a district 2,300 miles and two time zones away from the nation’s capital — to ask “Mayor Franks” to fix pressing local concerns like pot holes, broken street lights and traffic lights:

One by one, about 50 protesters knocked on the door of Franks’ office, and then spoke a few words about a problem in the city that they think “Mayor Franks” should address if he’s going to be writing laws that affect D.C. residents.

“My issue today is Metro — full funding for Metro,” said Jon Ozment, a 56-year-old D.C. resident. “As a constituent here, I use Metro all the time, my children use it, and it’s really disgraceful the condition they’ve allowed Metro to get to.”

“I have to say I’m very disappointed today,” he added. “I really wanted to meet my representative, Mr. Franks. He’s supposed to be representing us and I did take some time to come in here today, so I hope he takes these concerns into account.”

During the subcommittee hearing last week, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) criticized Franks for blocking Del. Eleanor Norton (D) — D.C.’s only congressional representative — from testifying against the measure. The ban itself is based on the contested theory that a fetus can feel pain 20 weeks after gestation and mirrors prohibitions in seven states.

Wednesday’s protest was organized by Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington D.C. and DC Vote.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) held a hearing on congressional Republicans’ most recent attempt to limit access to abortion services in the District of Columbia. The bill would prevent doctors from performing abortions after 20 weeks in D.C., based on the contested idea that a fetus can feel pain at that point. Franks, whose district is about 2,300 miles away from D.C., prevented Del. Eleanor Norton (D), D.C.’s only congressional representative, from testifying about the bill that would impact her constituents.

During the subcommittee hearing, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) criticized his GOP colleagues for blocking Norton from testifying alongside the Democrats’ witness, Christy Zink, a D.C. resident who “told of having an abortion at 21 weeks after tests showed the fetus had life-threatening brain anomalies.”

But Franks said late-term abortions were “the greatest human rights atrocity in the United States today,” calling the practice “inhumane.” And when he questioned a doctor who described an abortion procedure after 20 weeks, Franks compared the 20-week ban to animal cruelty statutes:

FRANKS: I find it tremendous — I don’t even want to use the word irony, just a break from human compassion that while we would do the right thing and prevent those things from happening…to animals, but not to human babies.

Watch here:

Women’s access to abortion care in D.C. has been under fire. In December, House Republicans forced a ban on funding for abortion services in D.C. to avoid a government shutdown and even prevented the city from using local taxes to pay for abortion care, reinstating a 13-year ban on abortion funding in D.C. that President Obama overturned in 2009.

But by using a medical procedure as a political football, Franks is necessary health care for women like Zink who want to decide with their doctors what is best for them — without input from Republican politicians.

Last February, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) came under intense criticism when he would not allow Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke to testify in support of an Obama administration rule requiring employers to provide birth control without additional cost sharing.