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

Middle schools: More birth control training, says CDC

The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that more young teens attending middle schools need to be trained how to use a slew of contraceptives, including condoms, abortifacients and other modes of artificial birth control.

The government agency also stressed that middle school teenagers need to be taught “necessary skills” so that they won’t contract a plethora of sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV and herpes. In its report, the CDC also said in its report that the “preventative measures” American middle schoolers must learn are to avoid unplanned pregnancies.

The results of CDC’s latest survey of American middle schools and high schools — administered once every other year — were published Wednesday to divulge the evolving health behaviors of students. Its 2014 School Health Profiles Survey findings were presented last week at the National HIV Prevention Conference, prompting the CDC to press for more aggressive sex education programs.

According to a CDC press release, students’ sex ed training in schools is not up to par.

“[F]ewer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools teach all 16 topics recommended by … [the CDC] as essential components of sexual health education,” the government agency reported.

Some of the topics covered include the importance of using “condoms consistently and correctly,” the “benefits of being sexually abstinent,” the “importance of limiting the number of sexual partners,” and using condoms “at the same time as another … [kind of] contraception.” The CDC also states that 6th graders through high school seniors must also receive training about how to get condoms, “how HIV and other STDs are transmitted,” the “efficacy of condoms,” “how to correctly use condoms,” and the health consequences of HIV, other STDs and pregnancy.”

Sex ed. the CDC’s way

Included in the CDC study is the examination of the percentage of schools that are taught each of the recommended areas of sexual education, LifeSiteNews.com reports. It also discloses the median of each state before providing its national assessment of teen behavior.

“A median of 75 percent of schools taught ‘[h]ow to create and sustain healthy and respectful relationships,’ while education on how HIV and other STDs are transmitted and ‘health consequences of HIV, other STDs, and pregnancy’ were taught 75 percent of the time,” LifeSiteNews’ Dustin Siggins points out. “Schools least often taught ‘how to obtain’ and ‘how to correctly use’ condoms, at 27 percent and 23 percent. Seventeen percent of middle schools taught all 16 recommended aspects of sexual education.”

Ranked number one on the list is STD prevention, with 95 percent of middle and high schools instructing their students on “how HIV and other STDs are transmitted,” as well as about the “health consequences of HIV and other STDs and pregnancy.” A close number two was abstinence, which registered at 94 percent. For high schools, the lowest two on the CDC’s recommended list of 16 were “how to obtain condoms,” (60 percent trained students on this) and “how to correctly use a condom” (54 percent of high schools). Nearly half (46 percent) of high schools in America teach each of the  CDC’s 16 recommended aspects of sex ed.

Honing in on public school education on seven specific contraceptives, the CDC obtained information on IUDs and several other forms of birth control that can also be used as abortifacients by teenage students.

“Sixty-six percent taught how to ‘the pill,’ 61 percent the ‘patch,’ 58 percent the ‘ring,’ 61 percent the ‘shot,’ 55 percent implants, 60 percent the IUD, and 49 percent emergency contraception,” the CDC divulged, according to LifeSiteNews.com. “Forty-three percent of schools taught all seven methods of birth control. Nineteen large urban communities were also sampled, though New York City was notably excluded. While the urban communities’ median numbers were often within five percent of the national median, both middle schools and high schools were far more likely to teach students about condoms.”

More exposure?

CDC National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention Director Jonathan Mermin stated that public schools must be more aggressive in its training of American teenage students.

“We need to do a better job of giving our young people the skills and knowledge they need to protect their own health,” Mermin insisted in his CDC press release. “It’s important to teach students about healthy relationships and how to reduce sexual risk before they start to have sex.”

Also noted in the press release is how condoms and other artificial birth control methods, devices, and drugs such as abortifacients are “essential topics in HIV, STDs, pregnancy prevention, and other health subjects.” The CDC called these classroom discussions “age-appropriate topics for middle and high schools based on the scientific evidence for what helps young people avoid risk.”

Even though a CDC media spokesperson would not tell LifeSiteNews whether it suggests educating students about the side effects of contraception or how numerous contraceptives can act as abortifacients, confirmation was given that it supports the public schools’ greater role in training kids to make “educated” sexual choices.

“CDC does not recommend the selection of a specific curriculum, but recognizes the authority of local school districts to make sexual health education curriculum decisions,” the spokesperson told LifeSiteNews. “CDC emphasizes that all sexual health education should be medically accurate and consistent with scientific evidence.”

The CDC also suggested that its brand of sexual morality should be inculcated in students to bring about what it considers society’s good, giving what many consider to be lip service about trying to accommodate local mores.

“[Sex education] should allow students to develop and demonstrate developmentally appropriate sexual health-related knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices,” CDC continued. “It should also be consistent with community values, and developed with the active involvement of parents. What is critical is that our students get age-appropriate instruction across key areas of sexual health in both middle and high school in order to develop the skills they need to be healthy in adulthood.”

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Middle schools: More birth control training, says CDC

Fulton schools changing sex-ed coursework, others to follow

Metro Atlanta school districts are considering changes to a controversial, abstinence-centered sex education curriculum, which some health care advocates and parents argue doesn’t teach teens how to protect themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Fulton school board members are taking up the “Choosing the Best” curriculum Tuesday, while Gwinnett’s board is expected to take it up later this year or by spring, school officials say. Cobb schools also use the curriculum, as do nearly half of all school systems in Georgia.

Propopsed changes include new statistics, photos, videos and other visual aides emphasizing why students should wait until they’re married to have sex.

The curriculum’s critics say it doesn’t provide information about how to use contraceptives. Proponents of abstinence-centered sex ed believe students should be getting the message that no sex until marriage is the only completely safe way to avoid pregnancy and AIDS/HIV.

In Georgia, parents who don’t want their kids to get sex ed can opt them out, though the majority want them to get sex ed, according to surveys. Metro school leaders say very few parents opt their children out of sex ed courses.

Among the most debated culture-war issues, the question of abstinence-based versus more comprehensive sex-ed curriculums gained steam with the onset of AIDS/HIV and a big push by conservative federal leaders to pour funds into programs that emphasized abstinence. Federal officials have since pulled back on such funding, funneling more money into sex education with a broader scope.

Georgia law requires schools to cover human sexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention, and says “instruction shall emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and fidelity in marriage as important personal goals.” Schools can use abstinence-based or more comprehensive sex ed curriculums.

“In Fulton, we have an abstinence-centered approach and everything is geared toward … why you’d want to choose to not have sex,” said Tasha Guadalupe, health and physical education coordinator for Fulton schools, which adopted “Choosing the Best” in 2001. “It’s a risk-avoidance curriculum, so it’s explained why the things that can happen and why you’d choose not to want to have sex.”

Fulton school system leaders have not presented details of the proposed changes to “Choosing the Best” via the district’s website. Instead, print and other resources were displayed for public review at 13 schools and other sites across the district. Parents, teachers and others submitted input via surveys, though Fulton system representatives have not released those results.

Some health advocates have argued against “Choosing the Best” and other abstinence-centered curriculums, saying they convey inaccurate information, shame sexually active students or exclude those who come from families where parents are not married. “Choosing the Best” covers contraception, but does not advocate or demonstrate contraceptive use.

“There’s not a standard in how the policy (Georgia law) is implemented. And so it’s very hit or miss. It’s not terribly effective,” said Kim Nolte, president and CEO of Georgia Campaign for Adolescence Power and Potential, a group that promotes teen pregnancy prevention. “We know that our young people are being shortchanged.”

Because the Georgia law is broadly written, school officials can cover sex ed to varying degrees, with some doing the minimum or not covering the topic at all, advocates say.

“Some (school officials) might feel like they’re following the policy by gathering all the students up and putting them in an auditorium and teaching them for 45 minutes and it’s with a guest speaker,” Nolte said. “We see that often. And there’s a check next to the box, we gave them information about HIV. Or we gave them information about abstinence. That is not an effective way of getting the information out. It doesn’t build their knowledge or skill level.”

Atlanta-based “Choosing the Best” is one of the more popular abstinence-centered sex ed curriculum’s in the U.S. It’s used in 47 states, and since 1993 over 4 million students nationwide have completed the program, according to “Choosing the Best.”

Materials for “Choosing the Best” have been revised several times in recent years in response to input and criticisms, representatives say.

“If we find that the intended communication point of a lesson, activity, etc. has the potential to be misunderstood, we will revise it,” “Choosing the Best” said in a released statement. “Choosing the Best” … provides extensive information about decision-making, understanding healthy vs. unhealthy relationships, sexually transmitted diseases, avoiding sexual assault, sexual abuse, the impact of teen pregnancy on achieving future goals, issues with sexting and refusal skills.”

At most metro Atlanta schools, sex ed is covered in grades 6-12 during health courses that run one semester. Committees of teachers, students, parents and others recommend the type of sex ed curriculum to be used, and school board members vote on it.

Nearly a decade ago, a group of DeKalb County parents protested “Choosing the Best,” and the district dropped the curriculum. It now uses a sex ed program known as FLASH (Family Life and Sexual Health).

Allyson Gevertz, who has two children who have participated in the FLASH program in DeKalb schools, said she prefers the more comprehensive approach.

“It’s such a taboo topic for so many families that many kids, the only place they’re getting any education is at school on this,” Gevertz said. “If they’re not going to get it at home, they’ve got to get it from school. You don’t want to send them out into the world not armed to make those big decisions for themselves.”

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Georgia’s teen birthrate has declined in recent years, though it remains still one of the worst in the U.S. In 2013, a total of 273,105 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years in the U.S, for a live birth rate of 26.5 per 1,000 women in this age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Georgia, the rate was 30.5, near the bottom with other states in the southeast.

The national rate has declined in recent years, and while reasons for the declines are not clear, teens seem to be less sexually active, and sexually active teens seem to be using birth control than in previous years, according to the CDC.

Fewer teen births

Georgia’s teen birth rate has declined in recent years, though it remains still one of the worst in the U.S. In 2013, a total of 273,105 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years in the U.S, for a live birth rate of 26.5 per 1,000 women in this age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Georgia, the rate was 30.5, near the bottom with other states in the Southeast.

The national rate has declined in recent years, and while reasons for the declines are not clear, teens seem to be less sexually active, and sexually active teens seem to be using birth control than in previous years, according to the CDC.

Fulton schools changing sex-ed coursework, others to follow