Bill Tracker

Comprehensive Sexual Health Education

Updated: June 15, 2005

On June 13, MAP testified on behalf of comprehensive sex education in the Education conference committee. Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council testified against comp sex ed, offering erroneous assertions that sex education encourages teens to engage in sexual behavior, that condoms have a fifteen percent failure rate and don't protect against disease, and that Minnesotans don't want their teens to get comprehensive sex education in schools.

In fact, research shows that while both abstinence and comprehensive sex education help delay teens from engaging in sexual behavior, only comprehensive sex education gives teens the tools to protect themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. This research has shown that teens who have only received abstinence education are more likely to contract a sexually transmitted infection when they do engage in sexual behavior as compared with teens who have received comprehensive sex education. Second, condoms work 98% of the time, when used properly. Third, polls show the majority of Minnesota parents want the schools to teach comprehensive sex education---a 2000 Minnesota Organization on Pregnancy, Prevention, and Parenting poll put the number of parents supporting comp sex ed at nine out of ten.

There were a number of different reactions from the conference committee. Senator Scheid (DFL-Brooklyn Park) rightly questioned the assumption that giving teens complete and medically accurate information would encourage them to engage in sexual behavior.

On the other hand, Sen. Olson (R-Minnetrista) questioned the need for comprehensive sex education, asserting that the current law (with a narrow mandate to educate only about sexually transmitted infections, including "helping students to abstain from sexual behavior until marriage") might not need updating. Representative Heidgerken (R-Freeport) was concerned that eliminating the abstinence until marriage language would throw Minnesota schools out of compliance with federal laws and/or funding. (This would not happen since abstinence-only education is funded separately through the MN Department of Health and the welfare reform act TANF.) Representative Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton) falsely asserted that the bill was only about "getting kids to use contraception".

No votes were taken on comprehensive sex education and the matter was laid over for consideration. It is likely there will be at least one more opportunity for the committee to hear testimony before a vote is taken. Your voice is needed! Please call the conference committee members and let them know that you support comprehensive sex education in schools that is medically accurate and complete. Click here for contact information.

Updated: June 6, 2005

Senator Kelley Continues to Support Comprehensive Sex Education in Conference Committee

Sen. Steve Kelley [DFL-Hopkins] has remained a steadfast proponent of comprehensive sex education in K-12 Education conference committee. In order to get the comp sex ed language that’s currently in the Senate education bill into the final bill, three Senators and three Representatives must vote for it. Based on our head count, it is clear that three of the House members are strong proponents of abstinence-only education. However, with Sen. Kelley’s continued support and your calls/emails, passing comprehensive sex education is still a real possibility. Click here to contact members of the conference committee, let Sen. Kelley know that you are behind him.

Updated: May 31, 2005

Passing Comp Sex Ed Continues to be an Uphill Battle in Conference Committee

The K-12 Education Conference Committee will continue to meet this week in order to finish their deliberations on the Education Omnibus bill. The Conference Committee consists of five Senate members and five House members. In order to get the comp sex ed language that’s currently in the Senate education bill into the final bill three Senators and three Representatives must vote for it. Based on our head count, it is clear that three of the House members are strong proponents of abstinence-only education. Clearly, it’s an uphill battle. However, we will continue to work towards the passage of comp sex Ed in the coming weeks. If you haven’t contacted members of the Education Conference Committee to ask for their support please consider doing so.

Updated: May 13, 2005

Contact the Education Conference Committee to Save Comp Sex Ed

On Thursday, May 5th, senate education omnibus bill SF 2267, which contains the Comprehensive Family Life and Sexuality Education language, passed the Senate unanimously.  It now must be adopted in the K-12 Education Conference Committee. There are ten members on the conference committee, five House members and five Senate members.  They need to hear from you! Click here (PDF) to contact members of the conference committee to save comp sex ed.

Updated: May 10, 2005

Comprehensive Sex Education Passes as Part of Senate Education Omnibus Bill,
SF 2267

The Senate passed its Omnibus Education Bill last Thursday. The bill includes the Comprehensive Family Life and Sexuality Education act. While the omnibus bill passed unanimously, it was only after a failed attempt by Sen. Betsy Wergin [R-Princeton] to add an amendment which would have mandated that every school district "obtain prior written informed consent from a student's parent or guardian” before the student could attend a comp sex ed class. The Wergin proposal would have also required school districts to inform parents and guardians how they could inspect all materials, curriculum and plans for guest speakers. This so-called “op-in” proposal would have made offering comp sex Ed impractical for most schools. Sen. Steve Kelley [DFL-Hopkins] raised a vigorous defense against this provision, reminding members that the bill language already allowed parents to "opt-out" of any or all parts of a comprehensive sex education, as well as allowing them to view all materials used in such a program. Ultimately, the amendment was voted down 35-30, with Sen. Bob Kierlin [R-Winona], one of the chief authors, joining most of the DFL caucus in voting against the amendment. No comp sex Ed language is in the House version of the omnibus education bill.

Click here to read the Senate version of the bill.

Click here to read Senator Wergin's Amendment and how the Senators voted.

Updated: April 25, 2005

Comprehensive Sex Ed Bill Still Trucking, but your Representatives Need to Hear From YOU!

The comp sex ed bill has found its way into the Senate Education omnibus bill this session, which is great! However, we need to convince House members to include a similar revision in their omnibus bill to keep the legislation moving forward this session. Please call or email your state Representative and let them know how important comp sex ed is for prevention of HIV, STDs and unplanned pregnancies. Don’t know who represents you? Click here to find out.

"Camp Out for Comp Sex Ed" RESCHEDULED

The "Camp Out for Comp Sex Ed" has been rescheduled. We have rescheduled the "Camp Out for Comp Sex Ed" for Wednesday, May 4, from 5-9pm in room 118 at the Capitol.

[Sorry. We plan in advance, but we can't predict what the House Leadership will do.]

Join us at the Capitol Wednesday, May 4 from 5-9 pm at the "Camp Out for Comp Sex Ed." Join Minnesota teens, their parents, educators, and folks who value medically accurate, comprehensive sexual health education together to call upon
their legislators to support comprehensive sex education in schools and minors' rights to consent to health care. To register, email us at publicpolicy@mnaidsproject.org or call 612-373-9162. Camp Out for Comp Sex Ed is being coordinated in partnership with Sex Ed for Life and our friends at MOAPPP [Minnesota Organization on Adolescent
Pregnancy Prevention and Parenting].

Click here for a copy of the “Camp Out for Comp Sex Ed” Flyer to use in your school.

Updated April 20, 2005

Comp Sex Ed and Renewed Funding for Regional Training Sites Moving in Senate

The education budget committee in the Senate is working this week to wrap-up its omnibus budget bill [SF1148]. As of now, it appears the bill will include provisions from SF878, which establishes clear guidelines for comprehensive sexual health education in Minnesota schools. It also appears the bill will include funding to re-establish regional training sites in suburban and Greater Minnesota communities to help schools implement the comp sex ed guidelines. A big thanks to Sen. Steve Kelley [DFL - Hopkins] who is leading the effort to get the comp sex ed and regional training site provisions incorporated in the education omnibus bill. Visit the Bill Tracker for more info. Also, watch your email in-box. MAP is releasing a rare, special action alert to start getting phone calls going in the House to ensure passage of comp sex ed reforms this year!

Updated: April 11, 2005


In a recent legislative update to constituents, Sen. Sandy Pappas [DFL-St. Paul] described her work on SF 878. We couldn't have said it any better ourselves.

* I presented my Comprehensive Family Life and Sexuality Education
legislation, SF 878, to the Education Committee last week. This bill offers
what we know works in helping our kids grow safely through their teens and
into responsible, healthy adults. While the current K-12 curriculum mandate
already calls for comprehensive sexuality education, this bill goes further
to define what needs to be taught, limits the mandate to grades 7-12 due to
parent preference, and gives school districts independent authority in how
they will meet their own parent expectations and student needs. After
amending SF 878 to include an abstinence-first approach while also including
education about the use of contraception, the bill was recommended to pass
and laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus Education bill.

Updated: April 6, 2005

Comprehensive Family Life and Sex Education Bill Advanced for Senate Committee Action

The Senate Education Committee advanced the Comprehensive Family Life and Sex Education bill to be considered for inclusion in the omnibus K-12 education bill. Speaking on behalf of the legislation were the bill’s two lead authors, Sens. Sandy Pappas [DFL – St. Paul] and Bob Kierlin [R – Winona].

“In my experience, teenagers get pregnant or get STDs because they don’t have information, not because they have too much information,” said Tanya Villalobos, who spoke on behalf of MN-TAP (MAP’s Minnesotan Teens for AIDS Prevention group) and Ablando Claro. Joy Miciano testified on behalf of Sex Ed for Life, and Marilyn Rivkin represented the perspectives of a parent. Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council testified in opposition, citing arguments raised in a recent report issued by the Heritage Foundation , a Washington-based conservative advocacy group.

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Read more about comprehensive sex education in the MAP AIDSLine Brief

Read more about talking to children about sexual health in the MAP AIDSLine Brief

Updated: April 5, 2005

Letter to Health and Human Services requesting inaccurate Web site be removed:

March 31, 2005
Secretary Michael O. Leavitt
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Secretary Leavitt,

We the undersigned are writing to express our deep concern with the Department of Health and Human Services' recently launched website: www.4parents.gov. While all of us agree that parents should ideally be the primary sexuality educators of their children, it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that parents receive the most accurate information and resources they need to achieve this difficult task. Unfortunately, 4parents.gov fails to meet these goals and instead, relies on fear to motivate and contains many errors and biases that undermine its intent of encouraging parent-child communication around sex and sexuality. 4parents.gov presents biased and inaccurate information as fact and does not address the needs of many youth, including sexually active youth, youth who have been or are being sexually abused, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

Specifically, the website dictates values to parents rather then helping them to incorporate their own values into discussions regarding sex and sexuality. For example, while discussing what parents can do if their child has become sexually active, parents are told how to convince their teens to stop having sex by telling their children that they are "worth it." No resources or suggestions are given if a parent does not convince their teen to stop being sexually active, implying that these youth are not "worth it."

Additionally, the website contains inaccurate information regarding the effectiveness of condoms and the ability of youth to properly use condoms and other forms of contraception. While www.4parents.gov states that it is easier to prevent a teen's first sexual experience rather then to increase contraceptive use, research has shown that programs that include both messages actually effectively do both. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, condom usage among sexually active teens has gone up almost twenty percent in the past two decades (from 46 percent to 63 percent). Messages to teens should encourage them to delay sexual activity and, when sexually active, to use condoms and other forms of contraception.
4parents.gov also contains a distressing lack of information for parents of sexually abused and assaulted youth. While it is commendable that the website includes some of the signs of sexual abuse in youth, it lists only one resource for parents and this resource does not focus specifically on sexual abuse, but rather on all forms of child abuse.

The website also fails to address the unique needs of parents with LGBTQ children. Whenever 4parents.gov discusses LGBTQ youth, it uses outdated and alienating language and ideas. For example, in the section of the website where sexual orientation is mentioned, it repeatedly uses the terms "alternative lifestyle" and "homosexuality." This language assumes that being lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) is a choice and also reduces LGB people to the mere equivalent of their sexual activity. The website also fails to include any information about transgender youth. Additionally, referrals for further information for LGBTQ youth and their parents is conspicuously absent.

The website also contains language that is clearly anti-choice in nature. For example, 4parents.gov states that "abortion complications" are one of the major reasons for infertility. In reality, less than 1 percent of woman receiving an abortion have a major complication and there is no evidence of infertility issues resulting from abortion among woman who have had the overwhelming majority of abortions. Further, the website omits the more likely causes of infertility, such as blocked fallopian tubes. In other examples:

• In its definition of menstruation, the website states that "If the egg is fertilized, this lining will nourish and protect the unborn child." "Unborn child" is not medically correct language; embryo or fetus would be accurate.
• The website defines abortion as "ending a pregnancy before a live birth occurs by removing the fetus or unborn baby from the uterus." Again, there is an agenda inherent in the language used.
• In its definition of uterus, the glossary section states "It is also called a 'womb.'" Womb has a religious, not medical, context.

Also troubling is that only one non-governmental organization is credited as having worked with HHS to create 4parents.gov: the National Physicians Center for Family Resources (NPC). The NPC represents views that are far outside the values of mainstream Americans and the public health community. NPC has ties to right wing religious organizations, like the California Family Council, Alabama Family Alliance, and Focus on the Family and boats of alliances with fringe medical associations and doctors such as the Alabama Physician Resource Council, the Physicians Consortium and Dr. Laura Schlesinger. Additionally, the NPC has repeatedly asserted a specious connection between abortion and increased breast cancer and has advocated for non-science-based interventions like abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. By creating the website with only one organization – and one organization that has questionable credentials in this area – HHS has dangerously narrowed the information included on 4parents.gov and in turn, shortchanged the very parents the site is meant to serve.

We respectfully request that the 4parents.gov website be immediately taken down and subject to a formal review of its content and techniques for communication and behavioral learning. This review should be done by a broadly accepted panel of experts in parent/child communication with well established credentials in this area.
We look forward to a response and to working with you further on creating a website that truly meets the needs of all parents and is based on the best available research.

Sincerely,

The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)
Cc: Dr. Alma Golden, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs
Wade Horn, PhD, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families
Michael J. O'Grady, PhD, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Cristina Beato, M.D., Acting Assistant Secretary for Health

Updated: March 28, 2005

The Senate education committee will hear SF878 and SF1262 introduced by Sens. Sandy Pappas [DFL – St. Paul] and Sen. Bob Kierlin [R – Winona]. The hearing is scheduled for this Thursday, March 31 at 3 p.m. in Room 112 of the State Capitol.

Contact committee memebers to express your support for comprehensive sexuality education and asking for theirs. With limited public resources, we need to do what research has proven really works to help young people delay initiation of sexual activity and grow into being healthy adults, and study-after-study has shown that giving young people all of the facts and telling the truth is what works.

Updated: March 9, 2005

Proposals to establishes “comp sex ed” as the standard for HIV, STD and pregnancy prevention education in Minnesota schools are in play this legislative session. They have bipartisan support from urban, suburban and rural legislators, and from lawmakers with different views on the often contentious abortion issue. SF878 and SF1262 establish comp sex ed as the state’s sexual health curriculum standard. The bills were introduced by Sen. Sandy Pappas [DFL – St. Paul] and Sen. Bob Kierlin [R – Winona]. The companion to this bill in the House is HF1301 introduced by Rep. Neva Walker [DFL – Minneapolis] with the bipartisan backing of 34 other House members. Also addressing comp sex ed and the regional training sites are SF581 and HF646 introduced by Sen. John Marty [DFL – Roseville] and Rep. Katy Sieben [DFL – Newport].

Read the bills. Check their status in the Legislature. Find out who else authored the bills.
SF878
SF1262
HF1301
SF581
HF646

Updated: February 28, 2005

On February 24, Sexuality Education for Life, along with the Minnesota AIDS Project, held a press conference about the Comprehensive Family Life and Sex Education Bill. Senator Sheila Kiscaden, of Rochester and Senator Sandra Pappas of St. Paul, along with Representative Neva Walker of Minneapolis fielded questions surrounding the bill. Senator Kiscaden, the author of the Education Now Babies Later (ENABL) bill, shared her concerns about its effectiveness. ENABL is an abstinence only education initiative that has been in effect in Minnesota schools since 1996. After reviewing the effectiveness of ENABL researchers found that it did not prevent sexual activity until marriage. The youth involved with the ENABL program also showed higher instances of unprotected sex than Youth who had not gone through the program. After reviewing the findings, Senator Kiscaden found that ENABL, a bill she had authored, was not effective and that there is a need for Comprehensive Sex Education. Representative Neva Walker also shared her support for Comprehensive Sex Education in MN schools. She spoke of her experience as a teen mother and now as the mother of a teenage son and how that has shaped her support of Comprehensive Sex Education. As a mother Representative Walker is concerned about youth getting medically accurate information about STI, HIV/AIDS and pregnancy prevention. Claire Strickland, a 12th grader from South High School, also spoke at the press conference. Claire was appalled and concerned about her peer’s lack of accurate information about issues surrounding sex, HIV/AIDS and pregnancy prevention and while her family communicates openly and honestly about sex there is still a great need for comprehensive sex education in the schools. The curriculum would be a requirement for grades 7 through 12 and it would allow school districts considerable authority to determine how to fulfill the requirement. The bill aims to ensure that students in Minnesota receive information that is current and medically accurate using strategies that science has shown to work in helping young people to make responsible decisions.

Updated: February 22, 2005

Rep. Sondra Erickson [R – Princeton] introduced HF1071, a bill that would add teaching about criminal sexual assault to the current state curriculum mandate for HIV/STD prevention. In recent legislative sessions, Erickson has been the lead author of bills to establish abstinence-only sex education requirements. HF1071 may provide the legislative tool for abstinence-only proponents to push the issue, so it’s worth keeping an eye on it. A companion bill has yet to be introduced in the Senate.

Read the bill. Check its status in the Legislature. Find out who else authored the bill.
HF1072

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