NC House to Vote on Sex-Ed Bill, Wednesday April 15
Urgent Action Alert: Take Action Immediately!!! Contact your Representative before 3:00 p.m.
Christian Action League
The North Carolina House will take up HB 88 – The Healthy Youth Act for a vote on the House floor Wednesday, April 15. If this measure passes, it will fundamentally change the way sex education is taught for seventh through ninth grades in the public schools.
It will supplant “Abstinence Until Marriage (AUM)” as the standard sex-ed with a “so-called abstinence-based Comprehensive sex ed (CSE)”. No one should be fooled. Although “abstinence-based comprehensive sex ed,” references abstinence as a preferred choice for avoiding STDs and unwanted pregnancies, unlike AUM, CSE teaches abstinence from “sexual intercourse” and not “abstinence from sexual activity.”
- One CSE curriculum, Focus on Kids, instructs teachers: “When discussing, ‘don’t have sex,’ be sure to help youth identify other options, such as finding fun ways to be together that don’t involve sex, or finding different ways to please a partner without sex (e.g., kissing, rubbing, mutual masturbation)”
- In the same curriculum group leaders are told to: “You may need to describe anal intercourse. (When a man puts his penis into another person’s rectum or as#@*$&. The person can be male or female.)
– North Carolina Family Policy Council Issues Brief
In “abstinence-based CSE,” kids are simply taught what options are available to them. For instance, in the CSE curriculum Reducing the Risk: Building Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STD and HIV it reads: “For teenagers, abstinence from sex and needle use are the best choices. The second best choice is to use condoms. The third best choice is to avoid multiple partners.” (– North Carolina Family Policy Council Issues Brief)
Children as young as 12 years old in the CSE program would receive instruction in all forms of FDA approved contraception: male and female condoms, emergency contraception, diaphragms, cervical caps, sponges, spermicides, oral contraceptives, skin patches, vaginal contraceptive rings, contraceptive injections, implanted contraceptives, intrauterine devices, and surgical sterilization.
Second, this approach to sex-education will further erode traditional marriage for future generations in North Carolina.
The current standard for sex ed in North Carolina requires that students be taught “that a mutually faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the best lifelong means of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.” Instead, youngsters in CSE would be taught “respect for marriage and long-term committed relationships.” To give credence to other sexual scenarios such as cohabitation and homosexual relationships as equally valid to traditional marriage would only further undermine the sanctity of North Carolina’s most foundational institution.
Is it any wonder that Equality NC, North Carolina’s premier lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender organization is so staunchly behind this measure. The passage of this legislation will be a major step forward in capturing the hearts and minds of the next generation that these other forms of relationships are normal, acceptable, and equal to marriage.
Finally, this measure is not really about parental choice. The legislation that will reach the House floor is an amended version of the original bill. It provides that at the beginning of the school year parents may choose from three options available for sex education.
1. Comprehensive Sex Education (abstinence-based or abstinence plus.)
2. Abstinence Until Marriage
3. Neither
Nevertheless, Comprehensive Sex Education will replace Abstinence Until Marriage as the standard by default. Children whose parents do not fill out the form at the beginning of the school year stating their preferred choice will be sent to CSE.
If this legislation were purely about parental choice, then the choice of “neither” would be the standard by default, meaning if parents did not make a choice which curriculum they preferred, the children would be sent to “neither” class.
This legislation is really not about parental choice, but giving North Carolina a new standard for sex education.
If this legislation succeeds, North Carolina’s children will be at greater risk and traditional marriage will be further undermined.
Let’s keep Abstinence Until Marriage as the standard for sex education in North Carolina.
TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY!!! – Speak Out Now!!!
Visit the Christian Action League’s Grassroots Action Center and email your Representative in the North Carolina House, asking him/her to vote against HB 88 – The Healthy Youth Act. Be assured that various liberal groups will be inundating lawmakers with emails and contacts, help us counter them by clicking here
