N.C. House Committee Passes Bill To Allow Alternative To Abstinence-Only Sex Education

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 13 Mar 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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North Carolina's House Education Committee on Tuesday passed a bill (H.B. 88) that would expand the state's abstinence-only sex education curriculum for grades seven through nine to allow discussions on contraception, the AP/Raleigh News & Observer reports. The bill, which passed by a 32-21 vote along party lines, would give parents or guardians the choice between an abstinence-only curriculum and the comprehensive sex education course, which would emphasize abstinence until marriage and also teach about contraception. If parents do not make a selection, their children would be automatically enrolled in the comprehensive sex education curriculum.

Republicans put the current abstinence-only curriculum in place in 1995 after taking control of the state House for the first time in more than a century. Although state law allows school districts to offer comprehensive sex education, they must first go through a "lengthy" process that includes public hearings, according to the AP/News and Observer. About a dozen of the state's 115 school districts have adopted broader sex education curricula.

The bill's supporters said the expanded curriculum would lead to fewer unintended teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. State Rep. Bob England (D) said, "Parents will decide, not politicians, the content of sex education that is right for their children" (Dalesio, AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 3/10). However, House Minority Leader Paul Stam (R) said the bill is "terrible" and includes vague language, such as a requirement for teaching respect for "committed relationships" (Bonner, Raleigh News & Observer, 3/11). The News & Observer reports that the bill "has a long way to go" in the state Legislature and must be considered by another House committee before it can be put to a full House vote. If the bill passes the House, it will then go to the Senate for consideration. Republicans thus far "have shown little interest" in changing the law, the News & Observer reports (Raleigh News & Observer, 3/11).

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released in January found that North Carolina ranked 14th among states with the highest teen birth rates in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available. Most of those births were to women ages 18 and 19. Girls ages 15 to 17 averaged nearly 25 births per 1,000 girls, compared with a rate of 22 per 1,000 nationwide. The CDC report said that the average age for North Carolina women to give birth for the first time in 2006 was 24.6, compared with 25 for the entire country (AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 3/10).

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