January 28, 2003
To: House Health Care Committee
From: Penny Lancaster, Spokane 509/922-4825
RE: HB1178
Abortion rights advocates are lobbying the legislature to pass a bill that would limit sex education materials to information submitted by agencies that THEY deem acceptable. If medically and scientifically accurate information is the goal, then many “safer” sex-ed materials that promote condoms as a means of protection against pregnancy and STDs should be ruled “medically” inaccurate. But, will studies like the one published in the August 1996 issue of Family Planning Perspectives be allowed? These studies found that “the proportion of abortion patients whose pregnancy is attributed to condom failure has increased from 15% to 32%." Even Planned Parenthood’s researcher Alan Guttmacher Institute reported that 5 in 10 women having abortions were using a contraceptive method in the month during which they conceived.
The FACTS are that using science to push contraception without talking about risks for emotional, physical, spiritual and psychological problems is disingenuously harmful to students, and against the law under which the state received the funding this bill is supposed to be addressing. Abstinence until marriage organizations offer sex education materials that tell the facts, as well as the truth. Unfortunately, these organizations are largely shut out by the pro-abort enthusiast who dominate the OSPI and committees that distribute the federal and state money intended to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
HB1178 says, "In addition to medically accurate information, sex educators shall present information that abstinence from sexual intercourse is the most effective means to prevent unwanted teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) when transmitted sexually.” That is no different than the current policy. Giving a nod to abstinence is NOT impressing kids or changing risky behavior. Instead, the bill should say that sex-ed programs shall be abstinence-until-marriage based with medically accurate information about the inadequacies of methods of contraception introduced.
A 33 percent increase in funding for "abstinence-only" education was announced by President Bush last year. DON’T let House Bill 1178 lock the door on the only programs that have proven to make a significant difference in reducing teen pregnancies and STDs!