It starts with an idea....

You can have an idea and start a process which leads to a law getting passed.

America is based on ideas and the freedom to express your ideas.

Your opinions count. You can talk or write to anyone -- committee members, experts, staff, or elected officials -- involved in each of the steps that it takes to get a law passed.

You can contact Congress members and tell them how you feel about any bill. This is called lobbying. You have the right to express your opinions before the bill becomes law. You can explain why you like or don't like it, or how it will affect you. You can say whether the bill will make things better or worse for you.

The President, Congress, the U.S. Senate and the American people all have roles to play before laws can be made. The steps Congress must go through provide the American people with opportunities and time to stop bad bills and to help pass good bills. You do not have to be a voter, or over 18 to have your opinion heard.

The best thing about America's system of government is that the process to get an idea to become a law can start anywhere. It can start with you.

This country is set up so that we can make good changes that will make a difference in our future. When you are old enough to vote, you get to choose people who will work for the things you care about. So we each have to vote, because if we don't choose our representatives, then someone else will choose them for us.

Who would have thought Congress would get so involved in laws about our very personal life? Especially about issues of safer sex, sexuality information, birth control, and pregnancy? But bills that deal with our right to control our reproductive health, and even our right to full and honest information, come up all the time now in Congress.

Sometimes the government is deciding about whether they should help fund family planning clinics in local neighborhoods or in schools. This government funding helps clinics offer low cost or free services to low income men, women and teens. There are people who object to teens getting information and services from neighborhood or school clinics regarding birth control, sexually transmitted infection, HIV, pregnancy tests, sex education and abortion services.

Organizations such as Planned Parenthood think teens should have information and access to all reproductive health services. They play a part in this grass roots process of monitoring what government does and in preserving our rights.

In a recent Congressional session there were more that 50 bills that attacked these health services. Some of the bills tried to make certain medical services illegal. Some tried to cut off funding to clinics, which would mean it would get too expensive for many teens. Some bills just tried to limit how much information and health services teens can have. Other bills were aimed at the people who work in clinics and who counsel or offer help to teens.

These bills come out every year with slightly different wording. But every year the more extreme ones have failed. It's only because of people like you and your community members that these ideas get put into law, or stopped. Local action is known as political grass roots activity. Like anything that grows, it needs strong roots. To build strong grass roots, people just have to follow what goes on in their state and federal government and express their opinions and let others know.

There is power in information. To keep what we value, and to change what needs fixing, is up to us.

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