Text of HI SB 778 (2010)

Report Title: Abstinence-Only Funding; Title V; Comprehensive Sex Education Description: Requires the State to reject all Title V federal funding for mandated abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES H.B. NO. 778 TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009 STATE OF HAWAII A BILL FOR AN ACT relating to Health. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII: SECTION 1. The legislature finds that as of November 2008, twenty-five states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Iowa, have saved millions of dollars by rejecting Title V federal dollars that require State matching funds. Title V federal dollars are required to be used for abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education programs, which have been found to be ineffective, inaccurate, and gender-biased. Abstinence-only education teaches our youth only about abstinence from sexual activity, without teaching basic facts about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, and human immunodeficiency virus. States that continue to take the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage federal funds are prohibited by law from providing information about the health benefits of condoms and birth control in protecting young people from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and human immunodeficiency virus. In April 2007, a longitudinal study of two thousand children commissioned by Congress found that teaching abstinence does not keep teenagers from having sex nor does it increase the likelihood that they will use contraception if they do. The results essentially gutted the fundamental premise behind the abstinence-only movement. The study concludes that, "Abstinence-only [education] was an experiment that failed", an experiment that is putting our children's health at risk. In December 2004, a report titled "The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs" was released that evaluated "the content of the most popular abstinence-only curricula used by grantees of the largest federal abstinence initiative, Special Programs of Regional and National Significance Community-Based Abstinence Education (SPRANS)." The report concluded that "over eighty per cent of the abstinence-only curricula, used by over two-thirds of the SPRANS grantees in 2003, contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health." The legislature finds that it is the policy of this State to provide Hawaii's youth with reliable information regarding contraception and protection from sexually transmitted diseases as well as to provide our youth with comprehensive sexuality education that empowers them to act responsibly and in their best self-interest. The legislature further finds that the federal abstinence-only-until-marriage education program is not compatible with this goal. The purpose of this Act is to assure comprehensive sex education for Hawaii's youth and to reject programs and funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage education programs. SECTION 2. Chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows: "§302A- Comprehensive sex education. The State shall reject all Title V federal funding for mandated abstinence-only-until-marriage programs." SECTION 3. Chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows: "§321- Comprehensive sex education. The State shall reject all Title V federal funding for mandated abstinence-only-until-marriage programs." SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored. SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval. INTRODUCED BY: _____________________________