House Approves Sex Ed Bill

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House Approves Sex Ed Bill

Special Report - April 16, 2009
This week, the North Carolina State House passed a heavily amended version of HB 88—Healthy Youth Act by a margin of 62–52. This bill would overhaul North Carolina’s existing sex education curriculum that calls for Abstinence Until Marriage (AUM) as the expected standard behavior for students to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy and the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases in exchange for a Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) program that emphasizes condoms and other contraceptives to reduce the risks associated with sexual activity outside of marriage. All 115 school districts in the state would be required to teach both CSE and AUM, despite the fact that only 11 of these districts have taken advantage of the current procedure in place to adopt CSE.

A plethora of amendments to HB 88, offered on the floor of the House, changed some of the most egregious deficiencies in the bill. These changes include the following:

If a consent form is not returned by a student’s parent choosing a sex education program, the student will “not be enrolled in either track and will receive no sexuality health education.” The original bill’s default option would have placed children in a condom-focused sex education program, if parents did not return a form requesting AUM;
Clarify that “any parent or guardian may at any time withdraw his or her child from participation in either program;”
Require that “the school shall provide parents an opportunity to examine the curriculum for both options before requiring the parents to select an option;”
Delete a requirement that the CSE program teach “respect for marriage and long-term committed relationships.” (emphasis added)

HB 88 will now be sent to the Senate for consideration.

“While the amendments from the House made a bad bill better, the fact remains that if HB 88 passes the Senate, our public schools will be teaching kids that sexual activity outside of marriage is acceptable, as long as they use contraceptives,” said Bill Brooks, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council. “This is a dangerous and unhealthy message for young people, and they deserve better. We hope that the Senate will realize that the current law which sets the highest and healthiest standard of abstinence until marriage for our youth is the best state policy and should be maintained.”