Texas Lawmaker Seeks To Ban Planned Parenthood From Providing Sex Ed in Public Schools

A freshman state representative in Texas is continuing the state’s dogged vendetta against abortion providers and their affiliates—that’s Texan for “Planned Parenthood”—by filing a bill that would prevent such entities from providing sex education in schools. This morning, Rep. Jeff Leach filed HB 1057, which reads, in part:

An entity or individual that performs abortions or an affiliate of an entity or individual that performs abortions may not provide human sexuality or family planning instruction or instructional materials for use in human sexuality or family planning instruction in a public school.

The bill would also put into law a requirement that students get written parental consent before receiving any family planning or sexual education instruction in the classroom. Currently, the state of Texas does not require any public school to provide any sex education whatsoever, but if districts do choose to do so, the state requires them to establish community councils that set the curricula for public school health and human sexuality education. Districts are then required to make that curricula available to parents, but existing statute does not require parental consent for the instruction itself.

Texas is already a champion of abstinence-only sex education, and has the fourth highest teen birth rate in the nation. 



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  • Jaine

    I went to the local Planned Parenthood and they set up the appointment for
    me. No one counseled me or told me what was going to happen. They never showed
    us what the procedure was. I ultimately
    found myself on the table in a small room with a nurse and the doctor. I was
    told there would be some cramping but not much. Oh really? It was extremely
    painful. I felt like my insides were being sucked out of me. At one point, I
    tried to hold the nurse’s hand and she literally backed away from me! I truly
    don’t remember much after that – just feeling emotionally numb. And then the
    nightmares and recurring dreams started. Having an abortion was the biggest mistake
    of my life!

    Melissa, Washington, D.C.