Children have a right to sex education!

Locally I am the pariah...responsible for making statements only in this blog on the issue of sex education at our local high school. Statements that some people are in violent disagreement too.

When my daughter came home from school and told me that she was told you can get pregnant from pashing, I immediately went to work on researching the program being taught.

I did eventually speak informally to one of the women who delivered the program at school that day and it seems my daughter misheard it wasnt pashing that would get her pregnant but passion that could lead to pregnancy.

I have maintained throughout this debate that the problem lies in the material that is given to the children for them to further research. I also spoke to Dr Leslie Cannold about the issue and heres what she had to say. (if you want the full version click on the text to go to Dr Cannold's website)

Your children have a right to sex education. This right is a component of their sexual rights, themselves a subset of the human rights guaranteed to them in international laws, human rights documents and other consensus statements.


But don't cry out for joy or fly off the handle with rage just yet. Because whatever abstract entitlement our kids have to accurate, relevant and age-appropriate information about sex, relationships and reproduction in the classroom, most aren't getting any. Education, that is. They are getting plenty of sex, some of it unwanted, as well as sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and, if they are same-sex attracted, a worrying dose of suicidal thoughts.

On the flip side to Dr Cannolds comments I thought I should show a sample of the information that is available on the Choices Decision Outcomes recommended link ..Gravity Teen, you should go visit this sight and look at the emotion laden messages that are clearly one sided and in my opinion designed to induce guilt.

Two nights later, it was still bothering me. My mom, dad, and I were out to dinner and in the middle of my parents' conversation, I blurted out "Mom, were you pregnant when you were 16?" She just looked at me with tears filling her eyes. She explained to me how she had an abortion, and as an eight-year-old, I could only imagine what it was. She said something about my sister, whom she had named Elizabeth, being in Heaven. At that moment it clicked for me that I had lost my sister.


Over the next three years, my mom became more active in the pro-life movement. She became the executive director of NOEL: The National Organization of Episcopalians for Life. I grasped the concept of what an abortion really was and got used to the fact that I was deprived of a sister I should've had. It was scary to know that my mom had killed someone that was so important to me.

When I turned 11, I was invited to speak at the Memorial Service for the Unborn as a sibling of an aborted child. I talked about how much I missed having an older sister and how I missed out on the little things, like watching her get ready for Prom or for her wedding. Spreading my experience of abortion was a big deal for me because it had been so much to overcome. Even though it wasn't me that had had the abortion, I felt bad and cried a lot about it.

Again you can click on the text for the full story and follow the tabs around the site- it makes for interesting reading. CDO doesn't appear to have anything to do with the site, but the fact remains that it is recommended to anyone who visits CDO.