Urgent Call to Action
SAMPLE LETTER
Call or e-mail your legislators in both house and senate. Hotline # 1.800.562.6000. Please pass this along to friends.
Please vote NO on House Bill 1178 regarding “medical accuracy.”
Vote No for the following reasons:
1) It is not about “medical accuracy” it is about controlling the content of abstinence education materials. In practice, it will eliminate abstinence until marriage education in the state using federal, state or local dollars thus nullifying parental control of curriculum.
2) This bill will cost taxpayers but no fiscal note is attached to cover the cost of re-reviewing all materials used currently in schools in the state.
3) It does not say who will review the “facts.” Medical facts evolve and there is more than one correct opinion in medicine.
4) This bill establishes state censorship since it will require all information to flow through the state but has no due process for submission, review, disputing “facts” or updating rulings.
5) A similar process has been used for HIV/AIDS education materials for nearly two decades, yet Washington State residents have not seen a decline in AIDS patients or a peer review journal article on the effectiveness of the state AIDS programs.
Kill this bill because it is so poorly crafted, revisions are unwise. There is also a companion Senate Bill slated for the Senate Education Committee. Testimony given in the first house hearing proved the point to all who know anything about sexually transmitted infections or contraception that the proponents of this bill are uninformed. Unfortunately, it is possible that they will be the resource for determining “accuracy.” For example, one of the testifiers FOR the bill had to correct the terminology regarding HIV as stated in the bill.
LeAnna L. Benn