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A bill requiring sex education programs in public schools to exclusively teach “sexual risk avoidance” took a step toward becoming law Thursday after gaining approval in committee.
SB277 by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, would also prohibit sex ed programs from providing information about how to seek an abortion, demonstrating how to use a condom, or displaying “Sexually explicit” images and materials.
All five speakers at the public hearing spoke in favor of the bill, although previous versions of the bill have faced opposition from the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health (ACASH) and others who believe in teaching “comprehensive sex education.”
“I don’t really understand why there are two opposite sides to this argument, because I think we can all agree as adults that kids should not be having sex,” said Candy Wagner, school program director at First Choice Women’s Medical Center in Montgomery. “When are children here about to turn 21, we don’t say ‘If you are going to drive under the influence, you should do X, Y, Z’; we tell them not to do it.”
Shelnutt said comprehensive sex education normalizes teen sex, while sexual risk avoidance curriculum does the opposite.
The bill precludes organizations from offering sexual education curriculum if that organization also provides abortions, which would rule out sex education programs from Planned Parenthood.
