Bill to ban Planned Parenthood in schools passes education committee 3-2

A bill that would restrict abortion service providers, like Planned Parenthood, from teaching in public schools has jumped its first hurdle. The Senate Education Committee voted 3-2, passing an amended version of Senate Bill 191 Tuesday afternoon.

Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, the bill’s sponsor, said the amendment addresses legal issues brought up during public testimony last week and invited testimony Tuesday.

Originally, the bill said “an employee or representative of an abortion services provider or of an affiliate of an abortion services provider may not present or deliver any instruction or program on any topic to students at a public school.” That person also could not distribute or display materials. If violated, the person could be fined at least $5,000.

ACLU of Alaska Executive Director Joshua Decker addressed problems with the bill. He was one of four people invited to testify Tuesday.

“The bill doesn’t discriminate based on content. This bill applies to every topic — from sexual health to President Lincoln to geometry to calculus. This bill unconstitutionally discriminates against people based on who they are, what they say, with whom they associate and how they spend their time in their private lives outside the schoolhouse gates,” Decker said.

Attorney Mario Bird agreed and said the current bill could pose legal challenges. Bird is with Anchorage law firm Ross, Miner & Bird. He’s also a board member of Alaska Right to Life.

Bird said similar legislation passed in Missouri in 2007 and Louisiana in 2014 had key phrases that “would be not only desirable, but has the virtue of not being challenged legally in either Louisiana or Missouri to my knowledge.”

He suggested inserting narrowing language into the bill, which is what Dunleavy’s amendment does.

Instead of any employee or representative of an abortion services provider being restricted from delivering material or instruction, the amendment stipulates that the employee or representative must be “acting on behalf” of an abortion services provider or affiliate in order to violate the law or be fined.

Also, instead of an employee or representative of an abortion services provider being restricted from presenting on any topic, the amendment narrows the prohibited topics to “any health topic, including human sexuality or family planning, to students at a public school during the hours the school is in session.”

Dunleavy’s explanation of the amendment states, “With the proposed amendment, the language would be in line with law in both Louisiana and Missouri.”

Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, was one of two no votes on the amended bill. As a former school board member, he said he had concerns with the bill.

“It seems to me there are a lot of protections in our current system. If a parent does not want their child to receive sex education classes, they can opt out. I think this is state overreach into school boards and into parents. I don’t think it’s a good bill,” Stevens said.

The other no vote came from Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage.

“I don’t see what problem the bill is solving. If you don’t want any talk of abortion in schools, just say so and be done with it,” Gardner said.

“If the issue we’re trying to address directly is abortion, one very good, very effective way to reduce abortion is to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, and information on about how things work is of great value in that,” she added.

Senators Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, Dunleavy and Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, voted yes on the bill.

Dunleavy made clear SB 191 “does not prevent any teacher, any school district from providing sex ed.”

Dunleavy’s bill is now headed to Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage.

Planned Parenthood provides instruction in 25 to 30 Alaska schools, according to Lacy Moran, Anchorage-based Alaska education manager for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands.

• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.

Bill to ban Planned Parenthood in schools passes education committee 3-2

Fresno Unified looks to restore sex education

Listen up Fresno high schoolers: sex education could soon be coming to a classroom near you.

Fresno Unified officials are talking about restoring sex education across the city’s high schools under a plan that would add lessons about sexually transmitted infections, contraception and healthy relationships.

At the district’s school board meeting Wednesday, trustees took up a proposal that would bring back all those topics by January. They didn’t take a vote and the issue will likely get more discussion this summer or fall.

The measure comes after local organizations like teen health group Fresno Barrios Unidos and the ACLU of Northern California urged district administrators to restore the lessons. It’s also on the heels of legislation that’s passed the state Assembly and is winding through the state Senate that would make comprehensive sex education mandatory in middle and high schools.

If the bill becomes law, it would mark a huge shift in what’s required of California public schools.

Fresno students already get the absolute basics. State law currently requires middle and high schools to provide education about how to prevent HIV/AIDS.

But schools are not mandated to offer “comprehensive” sex education, or age-appropriate, unbiased, medically accurate information. To be comprehensive, students must learn about abstinence, sexually transmitted infections and contraception.

Fresno County has the state’s fourth-highest rate of teens with chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, a figure that’s consistently 20%-25% higher than state averages.

Fresno Unified’s plan would use a curriculum called Positive Prevention Plus to teach those topics.

Local health advocates who attended Wednesday’s meeting praised the curriculum and said they were encouraged by the district’s effort.

Socorro Santillan, executive director of Fresno Barrios Unidos, urged trustees to partner with organizations like hers to help teach students. The group already has programs for parents and has taught workshops at some high schools.

Others who attended, like UCSF Fresno resident Dr. Janae Barker, said it’s a matter of public health.

Barker said she’s constantly witnessing teens who repeat their mistakes: they never learn about safe sex and prevention and wind up contracting syphilis or getting pregnant. Among a group of at-risk teen girls she’s worked with at Fresno High, she said, “it was amazing the things they didn’t know. There are kids in that class, two of which are currently pregnant, one who is on her second pregnancy.”

Fresno high schools used to have a class called Sociology for Living, a health and life skills class that was axed for budget and other reasons in 2011. It was at one time a graduation requirement and taught students about some sexual health topics and about marriage and family issues.

In 2011, school board members found a compromise to cut the class, but retain the subjects students were taught. That may have happened for a while, but school officials said this spring that comprehensive sex education is no longer offered.

It was amazing the things they didn’t know. There are kids in that class, two of which are currently pregnant, one who is on her second pregnancy.

UCSF Fresno resident Dr. Janae Barker, who is working with a group of Fresno High at-risk teen girls

Public health officials and community health organizers have been scratching their heads asking why sex education wasn’t restored earlier. Fresno County still has the fourth-highest rate of teens with chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, a figure that’s consistently 20%-25% higher than state averages. For people of all ages, Fresno County ranks second for both chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Among school districts in Fresno County, students within Fresno Unified have the highest rates of both infections, Fresno Department of Public Health statistics show. Clovis and Central unifieds are next on the list.

At the meeting, trustee Carol Mills said she hopes the district will move sooner than later to bring sex education back into both the middle and high schools. She’s talked to middle school nurses who have told her about eighth-grade girls becoming pregnant, a fact Mills said is almost “incomprehensible, although I know it exists.”

Many of the trustees said schools can’t alone be expected to turnaround such dire statistics. But overall, most were supportive of the plan.

Trustee Brooke Ashjian, who attended the meeting via conference call, questioned whether students would learn about lesbian, gay, bisexual and other sexual orientation and gender issues. He also questioned whether traditional relationships and marriage values would be taught.

Those questions will likely be hashed out in future board discussions.

Fresno Unified looks to restore sex education

Sex education in the UK is letting our teenagers down

Our young British public are growing up fast. Whether it’s watching my three-year-old niece manoeuvring her way through an iPad better than I can or listening to teenagers putting the world to rights, there’s no doubt that the youth of today are living in a fast-paced world and are hungry to experience it.

Related: How we halved teenage pregnancy rates in Haringey

In terms of the internet, sex seems to be on a different playing field, with the advent of information sharing, porn and social media adding a whole new layer to the world of teenage sex and relationships. With this change comes real alarm that we are not providing sufficient guidance for our young people at a vulnerable time of their development.

My own recollections of sex education circa 1999 are hazy: the school nurse waving a strip of condoms in front of a room of giggling 14-year-old girls and then, three years later, a switched-on adviser from Brook coming to speak, sadly when the majority of girls there were having sex already. Otherwise it was a reliance on friends, older sisters, parents or the indispensable More magazine for the problem page and gawking over “position of the fortnight”.

Young people these days, however, have no problems accessing information about sex. And it’s unfair to say that sex education in the classroom hasn’t improved since my teens. The recent National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles demonstrated that sex education in schools, if done properly, has a significant and positive effect on young people’s sexual decision making, health and wellbeing. But what it also identifies, along with a number of other recent studies, is that we’re not doing it enough and we’re not doing it right.

The Office for National Statistics reports that teen conceptions are down but still at high rates compared with some of our European counterparts. Sexually transmitted infection rates remain significant. Young people’s perceptions of relationships and what constitutes consent are worryingly skewed and high proportions of young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people experience bullying, prejudice and a lack of education with severe consequences.

In the absence of satisfactory direction, of real concern is the information children are independently turning to in its place. Easy access to porn and the hyper-sexualised use of social media at this crucial stage of development has created a false sense of sexual normality for young people. This is at a huge cost to their wellbeing and personal growth. My feeling of frustration and sadness when encountering a young person in clinic who’s never heard of PEP/hepatitis B vaccinations or a girl in distress as she’s been told anal sex is “what everyone’s doing” is becoming a distressingly common occurrence and something that must be addressed.

Pressure is now on the government to make some well measured decisions regarding the wellbeing of our teens. The education select committee has just released its recommendations to make sex education – posed to be renamed relationships and sex education – to be mandatory in schools. The rename is to highlight a much-needed focus on consent, young people’s rights, sexual wellbeing and education about same-sex relationships.

Related: Dying for a drink: alcohol-related deaths and illness cost us dearly

What the committee has also highlighted is the need for adequately trained people to deliver this specialist teaching. However, financial cuts have meant the loss of many of these trained individuals at a huge detriment to our young population. The National PSHE CPD training scheme that enables teachers to confidently and appropriately deliver sex education had funding withdrawn in 2010. And with the 2013 handover of commissioning sexual health services to local authorities, subsequent cash cuts to sexual health and contraceptive clinics is reducing the potential for clinicians to provide guidance for other professionals, educational outreach and focused young people’s services.

For now, decisions regarding the future of sex education are eagerly awaited and people committed to this cause continue their work in educating and empowering these adolescents. In the UK we are fortunate to live in a society that prides itself on both education and freedom of sexual choice. The focus now is on maintaining these rights for our younger population and arming them with the knowledge they need to tackle what lies ahead. Life as a teenager is complicated enough, so let’s not sell them short.

Sex education in the UK is letting our teenagers down

Why Is LGBT-Inclusive Sex Education Still So Taboo?

By Alexandra Temblador, The Next Family

Only 22 states plus the District of Columbia requires sex education in schools. Twelve of those states require sex education teachers to discuss sexual orientation. Three of those 12 states require teachers to impart only negative information on sexual orientation to students. Yes, three states in the United States make LGBTQ youth listen to discriminatory information directed at them by their own teachers. Take Alabama, whose sex education instructors are required to teach that homosexuality “is an unacceptable, criminal lifestyle.”

Out of 50 states and one district, only nine states have any form of positive LGBT-inclusive sexual education, a number that is very disheartening for the overall well-being of many youth in the United States.

LGBT-inclusive sex education is very important to the health and well-being of all youth in the United States and the lack of this sex education is harming many of our youth today. For instance, young gay or bisexual men, ages 13 to 29, account for more than two-thirds of new HIV infections. Young LGB girls are more likely to become pregnant than heterosexual or questioning female youth and are more likely to contract an STI. Furthermore, transgender youth are experiencing more sexual violence than other youths, a number that could decrease with positive LGBT-inclusive sex education in schools.

Not only could LGBT-inclusive sex education decrease these statistics among our youth but it could also combat discrimination and bullying towards LGBT in schools. When sex education or academic curriculum includes positive messages or instruction about LGBT issues there is far less discrimination, prejudice, and bullying aimed at LGBT youth.

In Canada, LGBT-inclusive sex education has recently made the news. Ontario just released a new sex education curriculum that is causing controversy amongst residents. Ontario will be introducing gender identity and sexual orientation to third graders but mostly as a form of “accepting our differences.” Just last month in the United Kingdom, Tristam Hunt, the Shadow Education Secretary, is trying to introduce a policy that would “make age-appropriate, gay-inclusive sex and relationship education compulsory” across the U.K. to combat LGBT bullying in schools.

As for the United States, the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act was introduced to Congress in 2013, was read twice, and then referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions where it appears to still be. The Real Education for Healthy Youth Act would provide federal funds to increase comprehensive sex education in schools that would teach youth medically accurate information about sex and would include information about gender identity and sexual orientation. Furthermore this sex education program would be “gender and gender identity-sensitive, emphasizing the importance of equality and the social environment for achieving sexual and reproductive health and overall well-being.”

Unfortunately, this act would not be a requirement in all schools since sex education is a state regulation. Rather the act would be presented as a grant that any of the following could apply for: a State educational agency, local educational agency, tribe or tribal organization, State or local department of health, State or local department of education, nonprofit organization, nonprofit or public institution of higher education, or hospital.

Although this grant does provide an LGBT-inclusive sex education initiative, it might not be very effective if state or local education agencies don’t apply for it. Additionally, who’s to say that education agencies, whether state or local, would be awarded the grant since they are also competing with hospitals and nonprofit organizations for funding for this initiative? Even though it is a right step forward in sex education, The Real Education for Healthy Youth Act does seem to lack the ability to provide all American youth with medically-accurate and LGBT-inclusive sex education.

Sex education is important for all youth and youth that live in states who do not provide medically-accurate sex education are suffering, statistically, from this lack of proper information. Even more, when an entire demographic of LGBTQ children and young adults are completely left out of sex education in 10 of the states that do provide sex education, or when they are told in three states that the feelings they have about who they are or who they like is wrong, education has once again failed. For if the purpose of schools is to educate, then a majority of educational facilities in the United States has failed in educating all youth about their health.

The internet or friends should not be our youth’s main source of information about their bodies or understanding their sexual orientation. Although many parents in the U.S. do provide great sex education to their children, many parents do not and for LGBT youth it can be hard to discuss their sexual orientation or gender identity with their parents. It should be an educational agency’s aim to provide youth the ability to lead long, healthy, and sexually-safe lives and with a nationwide positive comprehensive and medically accurate sex education that discusses LGBT issues on health and sex, our youth would have a much better chance at a more promising and healthy future.

Alexandra Temblador is a writer for The Next Family.

More on The Next Family:

Counting Down to Biological Children for Sam-Sex Parents

“Love Is Not A Choice”: China’s LGBT Awareness Campaign

Video: Gay Dads And A Father-Daughter Dance

Why Is LGBT-Inclusive Sex Education Still So Taboo?

New Doctor Chooses To Return Home After Completing Her Education To Aid Women's Health in ...

Dr. Gelila Goba hasn’t forgotten where she came from.

Instead of joining a comfortable practice in the U.S. after completing her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University, Goba instead will be caring for patients in her native Ethiopia, where in many communities light and heat qualify as luxuries.

After she graduates in May, Goba plans to move back to Ethiopia to implement a new initiative that she hopes will improve the state of women’s health in the desperately poor country of 90 million.

“A lot has been given to me,” said Goba, during a break at Prentice Women’s Hospital at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago. “I must make sure that I use those gifts wisely.”

The program is a partnership between Northwestern and Mekelle University in Ethiopia. It provides medical education, clinical training and research in sub-Saharan Africa, where acute doctor shortages and women’s health continue to be vexing problems.

In Ethiopia, the maternal mortality rate is twice the global average, and the rate of death from cervical cancer is almost seven times higher than in the U.S., according to the World Health Organization. The entire country has about 220 OB–GYNs nationwide—roughly the same number as Northwestern Memorial alone, according to university officials.

Residency programs are rare in Ethiopia. After students earn medical degrees, they often become general practitioners and work in district hospitals, experts said. OB-GYN subspecialties such as oncology, high-risk obstetrics and fertility are virtually nonexistent. Some doctors seek training abroad, but it has not been standardized. The Mela Project aims to raise the bar and formalize residency training.

“This is not medical tourism, but about something that is truly sustainable, about training the trainers,” said Dr. Magdy Milad, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NU’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “With Gelila as the steward of this program, it will not fail.”

The program, called the Mela Project, gained traction when Ethiopia’s foreign minister, Tedros Adhanom, visited Northwestern in 2012 to rally global resources for women’s health. Goba credited Adhanom with setting up programs to train health workers who provide care in nearly every community across Ethiopia—especially for women and children, the most vulnerable and underserved.

Northwestern embraced the idea and moved forward with the collaboration with Mekelle University, under the direction of Goba.

Dr. Keith Martin, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Washington, praised such partnerships.

“Building and retaining human resources across a broad range of medical and nonmedical skills is vital to saving lives and reducing disabilities in developing countries,” Martin said. “Universities like NU are an excellent and underutilized way to build access to the public health, primary and surgical care systems needed to do this.”

Read More at Fredericksburg

New Doctor Chooses To Return Home After Completing Her Education To Aid Women"s Health in ...