Spread the Word: Support NC HB 879 and SB 1182!

Support Comprehensive Sexuality Education for our youth

House Bill 879 and Senate Bill 1182 were recently introduced in the North Carolina Legislature, but they need your support to pass! Both bills would change the current Abstinence Until Marriage curriculum to an Abstinence Based Comprehensive Sexuality Education curriculum. This change would be a HUGE step forward for North Carolina. These bills are currently in committee and will be voted upon by April 12; any action must be taken quickly!

The bill's summary appears below:

Modify School Health Education Program. (Sponsors: Sen. Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth) The bill proposes substituting abstinence-based comprehensive sexual health education for Abstinence Until Marriage Education, which is currently included among the listing of programs that are to be developed and taught in the school health education program. Among the subject matter the bill proposes to be taught in the public schools are the following - 1. Abstinence-based comprehensive sexual health education; 2. Awareness of sexual abuse and assault risk reduction; 3. Prevention of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDs, and other communicable diseases; 4. Effectiveness and safety of all FDA-approved contraceptive methods in preventing pregnancy, including emergency contraception; and 5. Instruction on the law that allows an individual to lawfully leave a minor child 72 hours or younger with a responsible person in accordance with the provisions listed in the current law without being in violation of North Carolina's criminal statues against abandonment. The bill also proposes that all materials used for instruction be factually and medically accurate and objective. If this bill is enacted, it would eliminate the current public hearing requirement that a school board must conduct if the board wants to expand on the areas to be included in its school health program and instruction objectives. Local boards would be required to adopt policies allowing parents to withhold consent ("opt out") to a student's participation. Current law provides that local boards can adopt policies that either allows parents to consent or withhold consent -- "opt in or opt out" -- to a student's participation in sexuality education. (Referred to Senate Education /Public Instruction Committee, March 22, 2007).

What YOU Can Do!

This bill is a huge step forward, but opponents of comprehensive sexuality education have already mobilized to stop it. We need you to contact your representative and senator to urge them to support this bill. Further, we need you to do as many of the following as you can:

• Write opinion pieces to your local newspapers and radio and television stations, urging the public to support this legislation.
• Urge your friends, family, church, co-workers and people on the street to contact their representatives and senators to support these bills.
• If you work with teens, urge them to tell their parents and legislators to support these bills.
• Head to the State Legislature to show your support. Tell them APPCNC sent you.
• Forward this email to as many people as you can. These bills will be voted upon in Committee, and if they don't suceed there, it will be at least another two years before they'll come up again.
• Flood the Legislator's emails and phones with support; the opposition to this bill is organized and determined. We must be doubly so.

Who Do I Contact?

• You can view the members of the House Committee on Health HERE.
• You can view the members of the Senate Committee on Education/Public Instruction HERE.
• You can contact your legislator and urge them to urge their colleagues. If enough people express their support for these bills, it will help. Never doubt that we can make this happen.
• Bottom line: contact as many legislators as you can as soon as you can!

The Bottom Line

These bills aren't perfect. But they are the best chance we have to pass comprehensive sexuality education in North Carolina this year. Contact your representatives and senators, both Democratic and Republican, both conservative and liberal. Make certain that they know that this isn't a political issue, it's an issue of morality: our children deserve the best sexuality education that they can get. They deserve to be able to protect themselves from disease and pregnancy. They deserve better than what we currently give them.

Good Luck, North Carolina; your children are depending on you.