Measure to expand sex education rejected by Virginia Senate

RICHMOND - The Senate narrowly rejected a bill Wednesday that would have added specifics about contraception to public school curriculum.

The bill – SB 155, sponsored by Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico – called for adding lessons about various birth control methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The instruction would accompany what students have been learning in school since the legislature approved “family life education” in 1987: the value of abstinence and benefits of teenage parents putting unplanned children up for adoption.

The bill cleared the Senate’s education and health committee on a 9-6 vote, but died on the floor after falling three votes shy, 17-22.

The vote split largely along party lies, with Democratic senators Charles Colgan, Edd Houck and Phillip Puckett joining with the Republican minority to kill the bill.

Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, said during the session Wednesday he was disturbed by the list of contraception measures approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Some, like spermicidal foam, are effective only 50 percent of the time, he said.

“This list is rather staggering in terms of its scope, and the relative effectiveness or ineffectiveness,” Obenshain said

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Fairfax, urged passage.

“I would just like to ask the members of this body to think back about what kind of sex education you had in high school. I could tell some stories,” said Whipple, a grandmother of five. “I think giving our children, young people, accurate information is important.”

Whipple reminded her colleagues that parents are already allowed to pull their children out of family life education classes if they believe it isn’t appropriate or conflicts with religious beliefs.

Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax, said he’s been involved in teen pregnancy prevention efforts for decades.

“Knowledge is a tremendously powerful thing,” Barker said. After Northern Virginia began requiring family life education in schools, Barker said, teen pregnancy went down 50 percent, and teen abortion rates fell 60 percent. “Providing information to our teens does have substantially positive effect,” he said.

Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, said he worried about Catholic students in public schools.

“This was one of those efforts where the intent was right, but it could get in the way of families’ beliefs,” Houck said.