Petition Calls on Gov. Perry to Add Sex Education to Call for Special Session
Comprehensive Sex Ed Offers Best Approach for Reducing Abortions in Texas
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 9, 2013
More than 5,000 Texans have added their names to a petition calling on Gov. Rick Perry to add passing effective sex education policies to the call for the current special session of the Legislature.
Representatives of the Texas Freedom Network are delivering the petition and names of 5,502 supporters to Gov. Perry today, said Dan Quinn, TFN’s communications director.
“If Gov. Perry really wants to reduce the number of abortions in Texas, the best way to do that is to ensure that young people get medically accurate information about birth control as well as abstinence in their high school sex education classes,” Quinn said. “In a state with one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation, replacing failed abstinence-only policies with more effective sex education makes a lot more sense than pushing divisive abortion legislation just to boost the careers of cynical politicians.”
The teen birth rate in Texas ranks fifth-highest in the nation. The state ranks first in the rate of repeat births to teens. Legislators have filed at least five bills in the special session that would improve sex education policies in Texas.
Reports in 2009 and 2011 from the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund found that the vast majority of the state’s public schools teach abstinence-only or nothing about sex education. But a February 2013 statewide poll found that 84 percent of registered voters in Texas support teaching about birth control, including condoms, along with abstinence in high school sex education classes. (See here, page 14.)
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The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of religious and community leaders who support religious freedom, individual liberties and public education.
