Issue: Comprehensive Sexual Education

Here are some reasons why this is a very bad provision.

1) New state sex education mandate for all Minnesota public school districts.  The provision would mandate all public schools teach children grades 7 through 12 "comprehensive family life and sexuality education" which includes "education about contraception". Section 1, Subd. 1. 

2) Mandates "education about the use of protection and contraception" and only gives lip service to abstinence education.  A Heritage Foundation study of nine comprehensive sex education curricula and nine abstinence until marriage curricula revealed that comprehensive sex ed curriculum spent less than 5% of their time on abstinence material versus over 50% of time in true abstinence curricula; 0% on marriage versus 17% in true abstinence curricula.  Over 28% of the comprehensive sex education curriculum was devoted to contraceptives.

3) Comprehensive sex education curriculum is notorious for being extremely explicit and graphic.  According to a review of comprehensive sex guidelines established by SEICUS -- the foremost national advocate for comprehensive sex education -- masturbation, sexual intercourse, cohabitation, oral and anal sex, homosexuality and more are all part of their recommendations.  While the language of bill talks about age appropriate material, what comprehensive sex ed advocates view as appropriate material is much different from what the general public views as appropriate.  Simply look at existing comprehensive curricula to verify this.

4) Encourages the state of promote teaching on homosexual sex practices and alternative lifestyles and would prohibit the "abstinence until marriage" message from being taught.   Section 1, Subd. 4.   The bill would encourage the state to promote comprehensive sex education providing instructional materials "that do not teach or promote religious doctrine or reflect or promote bias against any person on the bias of any category protected under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, chapter 363A."  Chapter 363A gives special discrimination protection to bisexual, homosexual, and transgender persons.  The later includes individuals who had sex changes, transvestite and cross dressers.  While advocates of comprehensive sex education argue that abstinence can still be taught, the promotion of contraceptive use will directly conflict with the encouragement to wait until marriage.

5) Contraceptives don't prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Condoms have a 15% failure rate for pregnancy prevention.  For STDs it's far worse because many STDs are spread through nonintercourse sexual activity.  A comprehensive survey of research on the effiicacy of contraceptives in the prevention of STDs found no evidence that they prevented the spread of a number of STDs.

6) Will add "fuel to the fire" for sexual promiscuity and promote a mixed message.   Sending young people a pro-condom, and the invariable accompanying “use them” message, is the wrong message for kids already confronting sex-saturated messages in the popular culture.  It also breaks down sexual restraint and modesty among our young people.  Comprehensive sex ed with its focus on encouraging contraceptive use will only add fuel to the fire and encourage more sexual experimentation.

7) Does a grave disservice to our kids who by and large need and desire to hear a true abstinence message.  A survey of teens, who had already been sexually active, found that two-thirds regret they didn't wait to have sex.  The message of comprehensive sex education advocates is to encourage kids to use condoms “whenever they are ready”, and not wait until they are married.  The emotional and psychological scars for many kids are deep and long lasting.  Studies show that sexually active kids are far more likely to suffer from depression, consider suicide and engage in drug and alcohol abuse than kids who aren’t.

Conclusion:  With the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, it's critical we send kids the right message on sexual activity -- wait until you are married.   Kids need a clear and unequivocal message on sexual activity.  This provision mandating comprehensive sex education does not provide it and will, in fact, only make matters worse.