II
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4059
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 16, 2006
Mr. Lautenberg introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To prohibit departments, agencies, and other instrumentalities of the Federal Government from providing assistance to an entity for the development of course material or the provision of instruction on human development and sexuality, if such material or instruction will include medically inaccurate information, and for other purposes.
Short title
This Act may be cited as the
Guarantee of Medical Accuracy in Sex
Education Act
.
Findings
The Congress finds as follows:
A 2006 Government
Accountability Office report entitled Abstinence Education: Efforts to
Assess the Accuracy and Effectiveness of Federally Funded Programs
finds that the Department of Health and Human Services does not review the
content of the major federally funded abstinence-only education programs for
accuracy.
All federally funded programs aimed at helping young people make healthy decisions regarding their relationships and sexual health should include medically accurate information.
A 2004 report from the Minority Office of the Committee on Government Reform of the House of Representatives found serious medical inaccuracies associated with a large majority of federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
The Society for Adolescent Medicine (SAM)
found in a 2006 position paper that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs
provide incomplete and/or misleading information
and states that
efforts to promote abstinence should be based on sound
science
.
The American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have also expressed the
importance of ensuring that all federally funded sexuality education programs
include information that is medically accurate and complete
.
The American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) believes that children and adolescents need
accurate and comprehensive education about sexuality to practice healthy sexual
behavior as adults
.
The American
Public Health Association (APHA) recognize[s] that sexuality is a
normal, healthy aspect of human development … and that individuals of all ages
require complete and accurate information about all aspects of
sexuality
. APHA endorses the right of children and youth to
receive comprehensive sexuality education that includes facts, information, and
data and that demonstrates an appreciation of racial, ethnic, and cultural
diversity
.
The American
Medical Association urges schools to implement comprehensive,
developmentally appropriate sexuality education programs that are based on
rigorous, peer reviewed science
.
Over 1 billion dollars in citizen taxpayer money has been spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the past quarter century without significant monitoring of the content of these programs in order to guarantee they contain medically accurate information and exclude inaccurate data.
Medically inaccurate sex education
Requirements
A department, agency, or other instrumentality of the Federal Government shall not provide funds or other assistance to an entity for the development of course material or the provision of instruction on human development and sexuality, including any sex education, family life education, abstinence education, comprehensive health education, or character education, if such material or instruction will include medically inaccurate information. Before providing such funds or other assistance, the department, agency, or instrumentality shall require a sufficient assurance that such material or instruction will not include medically inaccurate information.
Definitions
In this Act, the term medically inaccurate information means information related to medical, psychiatric, psychological, empirical, or statistical statements that is unsupported or contradicted by peer-reviewed research by leading medical, psychological, psychiatric, and public health organizations and agencies.