WEDNESDAY TOP NEWS LINKS:
Kate McGee, KUT News
AUSTIN – Texas has one of the highest teen birth rates in the country. According to a recent study by the Guttmacher Institute, in 2008, Texan teens had 85 pregnancies per 1,000 women 15-19 years old.
And while protests and hearings continue around Senate Bill 1 — the bill that would limit access to abortions in Texas — some Democratic state lawmakers have filed two bills that would make changes to health and sex education.
But lawmakers who want to change sex education policies are facing an uphill battle: Gov. Rick Perry, and the State Board of Education
Under both bills, abstinence only education would still be the main lesson. Senate Bill 25 says if school districts teach more than abstinence-only sex ed, it must be evidence based, or recognized as medically accurate and verified by research.
Senate Bill 26, filed by Sen. Rodney Ellis, D- Harris County, also requires evidence based sex education, but it would require school districts to teach comprehensive sex education.
Sen. Ellis says it would also teach about parent teen communication, “…while helping teens to develop healthy life skills like goal setting, decision making and evaluating the consequences of decisions made today and values such as self confidence and respect.”
Read more of this story at KUT News-Austin
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