Virginia's Family Life Education Guidelines include learning objectives about abstinence, contraception and disease prevention. However, the Code of Virginia includes abstinence and disease prevention, but excludes information about FDA-approved methods of contraception. Thus, Senator Donald McEachin has introduced SB155 which amends the Code of Virginia so as to reflect and reaffirm the need for comprehensive, medically-accurate information in FLE programs.
Not surprising of course are the blatant lies about this bill coming from the "Some Families" Foundation. "The bill, introduced by Sen. Donald McEachin (D-9, Richmond) would replace current abstinence-based Family Life Education programs with a controversial contraception-only curriculum", they write in an action alert. "The passage of SB 155 would effectively remove abstinence education in any form from our schools."
Absolutely not true! Abstinence is now and will be forever a staple in Family Life Education in my kids' schools and in schools throughout Virginia. The only problem we have is that the Family Foundation #1 wants abstinence-only programs in Virginia, but won't admit it as a vast majority of parents support programs that discuss abstinence as well as other methods for preventing pregnancy and STDs and #2 they don't know how to read...
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:1. That -º 22.1-207.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
-º 22.1-207.1. Family life education.
The Board of Education shall develop by December 1, 1987, standards of learning and curriculum guidelines for a comprehensive, sequential family life education curriculum in grades K through 12. Such curriculum guidelines shall include instruction as appropriate for the age of the student in family living and community relationships, abstinence education, the value of postponing sexual activity, the use of Food and Drug Administration approved methods of contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy, the benefits of adoption as a positive choice in the event of an unwanted pregnancy, human sexuality, human reproduction, dating violence, the characteristics of abusive relationships, steps to take to avoid sexual assault, and the availability of counseling and legal resources, and, in the event of such sexual assault, the importance of immediate medical attention and advice, as well as the requirements of the law and the etiology, prevention and effects of sexually transmitted diseases.
All such instruction shall be designed to promote parental involvement, foster positive self concepts and provide mechanisms for coping with peer pressure and the stresses of modern living according to the students' developmental stages and abilities. The Board shall also establish requirements for appropriate training for teachers of family life education, which shall include training in instructional elements to support the various curriculum components.
For the purposes of this section, "abstinence education" means an educational or motivational component which has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by teenagers' abstaining from sexual activity before marriage.
SB155 passed out of the Senate Education and Health committee by a little too thin a margin (9-6). It is expected to come before the Senate THIS MONDAY, Feb. 4th, and the Some Families Foundation seems to think they can defeat this bill if they get just 1 Democrat and all 19 Republicans to support it. "[W]e are asking you to get out there and knock on doors and have all of your friends and neighbors, especially pastors, to call their Senator and tell them" lies and distortions about what SB155 actually does.
From their action alert email:
"This bill is the highest priority legislative initiative for Planned Parenthood. That pro-abortion group had close to 500 people here yesterday to argue for its passage. Some of their activists were still in high school. Are we going to let them go into our schools to recruit the next generation of pro-choicers without putting up a fight? These are our children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren and great grandchildren. No! We cannot let them win this critical battle. The education of our children is too important to trust to ineffective and dangerous contraception-based programs."
Ineffective and dangerous programs? Consider these facts...
Each year, U.S. teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million STDs. By age 18, 70% of U.S. females and 62% of U.S. males have initiated vaginal sex. Comprehensive sex education is effective at assisting young people to make healthy decisions about sex and to adopt healthy sexual behaviors. No abstinence-only program has been shown to help teens delay the initiation of sex or to protect themselves when they do initiate sex.
Virginia recently became the 14th state to reject Title V funding for abstinence-only programs. In his budget, the Governor made it clear that Virginia is committed to evidence-based programs that include both abstinence and contraception. It is time that the Code of Virginia reflect the research as well.
Please contact your Senators and let them know the truth about SB155. Let Virginia kids get the correct and complete medical information. (To find out who your Senator is, click here.)