Just hours ago the Mental Health and Youth Services committee in the Senate decided to adopt language that effectively changes the entire content of the Healthy Youth Act -- it strips parents of the right to choose which of the two tracks to enroll their children in. Unbelievable!

Please tell the Senators on this committee how disappointed you are that they allowed this bill to be weakened to the point where parents no longer have an active role their children’s sex education.

The version of the bill that is now headed to the Senate Floor would mandate that all children in grades 7-9 receive 5 days of medically inaccurate, biased, abstinence-only until marriage education, followed by just 2 days of comprehensive sex ed. Worst of all, parents would have the ability to opt out of the comprehensive sex ed material, but NOT the abstinence-only portion!

Parents across the state have spoken out in favor of CHOICE in this matter. They want to decide what education their children receive.

Urge these Senators to listen to what parents want!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I was deeply disappointed to learn that you voted to allow a version of the Healthy Youth Act that denies parents the right to choose their children's sex ed track to head to the Senate Floor.

It is a fact: 99.5% of parents think that information about transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS and STD's should be part of a sex education curriculum. It is also a fact that the abstinence-only until marriage curriculum, of which 5 days are mandated for every student in grades 7-9 in the new version of this bill, does not address infection transmission or provide ways for teens to keep themselves safe when they do become sexually active later in life.

Our parents and our teens deserve better than what is now a watered down version of a bill that had the potential to go so far to reduce our state's alarmingly high teen pregnancy and HIV rates.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
June 10, 2009