(The Lion) — Michigan Democrats are trying to overhaul the state’s sex education standards to reflect progressive ideologies.
House Bill 6068, filed Tuesday by Rep. Rachel Hood, D-Grand Rapids, aims to turn innocuous sex education standards into socially corrosive propaganda.
The bill removes references to “family life” and “family planning” and instead focuses on the individual.
It walks back a requirement to teach abstinence as “a positive lifestyle for unmarried young people,” replaces “local clergy” with “community health professionals” on local sex education advisory boards, and removes a prohibition against public schools distributing “a family planning drug or device.”
Other deleted passages include:
- “Clinical abortion shall not be considered a method of family planning, nor shall abortion be taught as a method of reproductive health.”
- “Discuss the benefits of abstaining from sex until marriage and the benefits of ceasing sex if a pupil is sexually active.”
- “Include a discussion of the possible emotional, economic, and legal consequences of sex.”
- “Stress that unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are serious possibilities of sex that are not fully preventable except by abstinence.”
- “Teach that the pupil has the power to control personal behavior. Pupils shall be taught to base their actions on reasoning, self-discipline, a sense of responsibility, self-control, and ethical considerations such as respect for self and others.”
The updated standards include new language about not discriminating toward any “gender expression, gender identity [or] sexual orientation.”
Moreover, its new goals are to:
- “Provide students with knowledge and skills needed to make decisions about their optimal sexual health, Relationships, and well-being.”
- “Include nonbiased information about all legally available pregnancy outcomes.”
- “Affirmatively recognize that individuals have different sexual orientations and gender identities and, when discussing or providing examples of relationships, be inclusive of various gender relationships.”
Rep. Hood, the primary sponsor of the new liberal standards, told Bridge Michigan the overhaul is about modernization.
“Comprehensive sex education takes a wider lens: enabling students to make healthy choices for themselves and their relationships – and lets these conversations begin long before sex or puberty,” she said – inexplicably ignoring the possibility of abstinence as a healthy choice.
As the parent of LGBT children, Hood added it is “harmful and painful” when politicians drum up “fear about sexual identity and LGBTQ issues.”
However, other legislators disagree.
Rep. Jaime Greene, R-Richmond, criticized HB 6068 for removing “the foundational emphasis on abstinence, potentially undermining a clear, responsible approach to sexual health.”
She added the new standards may clash with “family values and beliefs, risking a curriculum that is inconsistent with the moral framework many parents wish to instill in their children.”
Others in the education sphere also had concerns about HB 6068.
Lhauren Singleton, chair of the Michigan Sexual Risk Avoidance Council, told Michigan News Source current standards “provide a solid framework” and the changes may “significantly reduce citizens’ control over local educational content.
“Our primary concern is that this overhaul, as drafted, may overemphasize sexual risk reduction while undervaluing the real-life benefits of avoiding risk behaviors.”
Katherine Bussard, executive director of a Christian nonprofit called Salt & Light Global, concurred the current standards work well.
“Engaged parenting and Michigan’s emphasis on abstinence and healthy decision making in existing sex education are having a positive effect year over year,” Bussard said.
Indeed, according to state data, more than 75% of Michigan’s K-12 students practice abstinence and less than 20% are sexually active. Both of those statistics are better than the national average.
Bussard also criticized presenting abortion as a form of contraception or an acceptable “pregnancy outcome.”
HB 6068 has been referred to state education committee.
