Missouri’s own nutjob, Cynthia Davis, is at it again. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Sex education classes in Missouri’s public schools would no longer be required to teach about contraception under a bill that would, instead, model instruction after a federal abstinence-only program.
Critics told a House committee Wednesday that the bill would gut the state’s sex education law, making it impossible for teachers to speak of any form of contraception other than abstinence.
“In essence, this bill would dismantle our current comprehensive sex education law,” said Michelle Trupiano of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, said the legislation would merely give school districts the flexibility to teach sex education as they see fit.
“There is nothing in the bill that prohibits anyone from talking about anything,” she said. “Schools will be liberated to teach what schools want to teach.”
*snip*
Davis’ bill would strike that, saying instead that information on contraceptives and pregnancy should conform to a federal abstinence-only program.
The program makes no mention of contraception. Instead, it lists eight aspects of abstinence that should be taught, for example, that abstinence is the “expected standard for all school-aged children” and that sex outside marriage is likely to have “harmful psychological and physical effects.”
Which is bad enough, but then another Republican spoke out:
During Wednesday’s hearing, at least one lawmaker questioned why schools teach sex education.
“I don’t understand why our school systems are assuming this parental responsibility and diluting their instructional time,” said Rep. Wayne Cooper, R-Camdenton.
Probably because more parents don’t take this responsibility on…or when they do they provide inaccurate or unhelpful information?
Filed under: Current Events, Insanity |
Afarensis: Anthropology, Evolution, and Science 
Maybe Wayne and Cynthia need to get a room….
I’m soooo glad I left the state of Misery years ago….
I grew up in Utah, which is filled with similar otherwise well-meaning people who work hard to keep teens ignorant of Teh Sex, resulting in sky-high teen pregnancy rates, and a higher tendency of children to delay reporting molestation and sexual harrasment incidents.
The worst part is that many of these people are genuinely convinced they are ‘protecting the children’, when in fact their activities make children much more vulnerable.
Abstinence-based se x-ed ruins lives.
It always amazes me that some people would choose an option that leads to the exact opposite result of what they are trying to accomplish. Verily, religion has negative affects on the brain.
So you are in Missouri.
You know whats funny, is that these “sciencE” blogs, which were supposed to be about the expansion of scientific knowledge, have become fronts for political and religious rants.
In effect, what you are promoting is SCIENTISM not science.
Remember, “Fundies only dream about the end of the world, scientists have made it possible.”
Yes, I mention my location in the about tab above. Since you want science, I should mention that there have been a number of scientific studies of the effectiveness of abstinence only sex ed programs. These studies indicate that teaching abstinence only is remarkably ineffective at acheiving the stated goals of abstinence only programs (such as reducing teen sexual activity, teen pregnancies, abortions and STDs). Rather abstinence only increases most of them. Over and above that, this is a public health issue and hence a science issue.
I find preventing children or young people from learning how their reproductive functions work (including preventing conception) to be a violation of their rights. Just as people have the right to know their constitutional rights or how their digestive system works, so they also have the right to live life how they see fit, which includes choosing a time that is right for them to try and have children. Not giving them that information when they are at a potential-rich time of their life robs them of much of their ability to exercise control over that future. To say nothing of the years stolen from people’s lives because they didn’t know that a condom or birth control wouldn’t protect them from HIV.
Science showed us the rules
Engineers built the tools
Fundies gave us the fools
who turned the world to stools.