Minnesota House passes “unhealthy” sex
education mandate for all Minnesota public schools
The mandate requires
condoms be promoted in grades 7 through 12 despite the fact
condoms do not prevent the spread of sexually transmitted
diseases
Minneapolis – Tom Prichard, President
of the Minnesota Family Council (MFC), today criticized a vote
in the Minnesota House mandating contraceptive sex education
for all Minnesota public schools, grades 7 through 12. An amendment was added
to the education policy bill SF 3001 on Monday, mandating
contraceptive education.
“This mandate is unhealthy and thus
irresponsible,” said Tom Prichard. “At a time when there
is an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases raging among
teenage girls, it’s irresponsible to mandate what doesn’t work
– more condoms.”
Prichard noted that condoms don’t
prevent the spread of STDs and comprehensive sex education has
been the form of sex education overwhelmingly taught in public
schools during the time the epidemic of STDs has exploded
among teenage girls.
One in four teenage girls now has a
STD.
“To mandate the ‘anything goes’
approach to sex education taken by comprehensive sex education
is like adding ‘fuel to the fire’ of the STD epidemic among
our young people.
That’s why it’s an irresponsible approach to sexuality
issues for young people,” said
Prichard.
“The abstinence-until-marriage approach
is 100% successful in preventing teen pregnancy, emotional
damage resulting from teen promiscuity, and the epidemic of
sexually transmitted disease. There are also
numerous abstinence education programs that are successful in
getting this message out. To simply say, 'all
kids are going to be sexually active and therefore let’s
handout condoms' is not only untrue but sells our teenagers
short,” concluded Prichard.
CDC studies found that in 2003 fewer
than half of high school kids had had sexual intercourse. A recently released
Heritage Foundation report, "Abstinence Education: Assessing the
Evidence” reviewed abstinence programs and found significant
positive results from a number of such programs. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg2126es.cfm
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