Wisconsin Senate votes to replace comprehensive sex-ed with abstinence/marriage-focused curriculum

Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled Senate took steps Thursday to undo comprehensive sex education in schools. Senators voted 17-15 — along party lines — for a bill that would require schools that teach sexual education to promote marriage and teach abstinence as the “only reliable way” to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), reports the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.

The law, if passed, would repeal a one-year-old law that requires schools that teach sexual-health courses to teach both abstinence and contraception. Abstinence-only education was banned while Democrats controlled both state chambers, but in 2010, House and Senate control flipped to the Republicans.

Under Senate Bill 237, schools would be required to teach abstinence is the preferred choice for unmarried students and would have to discuss the socioeconomic benefits of marriage. The bill would allow schools to teach about birth control, but it is not a recommended topic of discussion. The Senate also adopted an amendment preventing schools from discriminating against students based on their race, gender, sexual orientation or if they have disabilities or are already sexually active.

From the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:

Its chief sponsor, Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), said her proposal would give school districts more of a say in writing their curricula.

“This is about small government at its best,” she said. “This is about local control.”

But Democrats said changing the law could lead to spikes in sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies.

“What’s before us is whether we want children to learn sex education … from our schools or from a Google search,” said Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee).

Democrats noted Milwaukee’s teen birthrate dropped after the city and the United Way of Greater Milwaukee launched a 2008 program that teaches young people about both abstinence and contraception. The city’s birthrate dropped from 52 per 1,000 teens in 2006 to 35.7 per 1,000 in 2010.

But Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) argued the drop in the city’s teen birthrate was because Milwaukee Public Schools had put more of an emphasis on abstinence.

A federal sex-education bill introduced to Congress on Wednesday, would prohibit federal funding to all programs that enforce abstinence-only instruction without offering students “age-appropriate” information about “life-saving” prevention methods. State schools only offering abstinence-only education would thus be ineligible for federal sex-education dollars.