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Michigan Democrats want to rewrite sex education before they lose power

Online Niel November 14, 2024

Lansing — House Democrats hope to advance a bill during the Legislature’s year-end lame-duck session that would expand the content to be taught in sex education classes in public schools and lift the ban on handing out condoms or other contraceptives on school property.

The bill introduced on Tuesday would continue to require schools to emphasize abstinence as an effective method of preventing sexually transmitted infections, but removes additional wording describing abstinence as “a positive lifestyle for unmarried youth.”

The bill also removes language that would prevent the distribution of “a family planning drug or device” on school property and removes language that prevents the teaching of abortion as a family planning or reproductive health method.

The new legislation requires school districts to develop sex education programs that cover a “wide range of topics,” including consent, puberty, healthy relationships, gender, sexual identity and sexual decision-making, said state Rep. Rachel Hood, D-Grand Rapids who introduced the legislation.

The curriculum should be trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate and include information about all “legally available pregnancy outcomes, contraceptive options and effectiveness, and healthy relationships,” Hood said.

“This approach has been proven to ensure that young people learn about bodily autonomy, healthy relationship boundaries, that young people are able to foster a culture of self-awareness and respect in their communities for themselves and for future generations,” Hood said.

The legislative effort to rewrite state laws governing sex education in Michigan’s K-12 schools comes as Democrats are poised to lose control of the House of Representatives following last week’s election results. Republicans will control as many as 58 of the House’s 110 seats next year.

Hood said the legislation was introduced “strategically” after the election to avoid politicizing it in the campaigns. While supporters hope to see the bill passed during the lame duck, there will still be committee hearings on the legislation, Hood said.

State Rep. Jaime Greene, a Richmond Republican who serves as vice chairman of the House Education Committee, said the bill is a “clear overreach” and removes the “fundamental focus on abstinence” when schools should be focusing on on “basic university”.

“It introduces sensitive topics like gender identity, sexual orientation and reproductive rights that many parents find completely inappropriate for young students,” Greene said. “It’s pushing a curriculum that could directly conflict with the values and beliefs that families work hard to instill in their children.”

The curriculum guides will include information for LGBTQ youth, but Hood stressed that families will still be able to opt out of classes under the legislation.

“This continues to allow school districts, parents, and children to opt out of sex education in the classroom, out of respect for any religious preferences they may have or any other dynamic that makes it uncomfortable for a child or parent to participate in this way,” Hood said. “But if school districts are going to provide sex education, then it has to be medically sound. Facts are facts.”

State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, noted that the last time the sex education law was updated was about 20 years ago, before same-sex marriage was legalized and before Michigan voters enshrines the right to abortion in the state constitution.

“My point is that we’ve made a lot of progress in two decades, and our education, especially our sex education program, needs to reflect that,” Pohutsky said.

The bill’s language also requires that information shared in sex education classes be “factual” and “medically accurate,” meaning that the information is verified by scientific methods and recognized as accurate by professional organizations relevant.

The bill retains language requiring advance notice to parents or legal guardians of a student’s enrollment in a sex education class and access to course materials, as well as at least two weeks’ notice of their right to withdraw a student from class.

The bill removes a blanket list of requirements for the content of sex education, including information about the “benefits of abstinence from sex until marriage,” the stress that an unplanned pregnancy or STI can produce, adoption services, legal responsibilities that would have a student as a parent, information about “refusal skills” and that it is wrong to take advantage of, harass, or sexually exploit another student.

That list is replaced by information requirements on bodily autonomy, puberty and development, sexual identity, sexual decision-making, healthy relationships and consent, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, contraception and access to sexual and reproductive health services.

Additional language requires instructions on communicating with parents and health care providers about their reproductive health, ways to avoid and refuse unwanted sexual advances, and laws related to sexual harassment, assault, trafficking, and explicit material.

The bill also requires affirmative recognition “that individuals have different sexual orientations and gender identifications and, when discussing or providing examples of relationships, must include different gender relationships.”

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