The Montana Legislature is considering an anti-science sex education bill that will invite the instruction of faith-based medical providers into our public schools. Please take a few moments to ask lawmakers to stop this bill.
The bill, SB 99, would require parents to opt their children into sex education (rather than requiring religious parents to opt out), and would prohibit any entity or person that provides abortion from contributing to the instruction in any way. This means that any medical professional affiliated with a hospital or clinic that provides abortion services would be barred from teaching the course, providing materials on STD and pregnancy prevention, etc. Perhaps most troubling is that so-called Crisis Pregnancy Centers, many of them faith-based, would be able to fill the gap and offer “educational” services and materials, as they objectionably do in many school systems across the country.
This proposal structures education policy to favor those with religious objections to comprehensive sex education, instead of requiring those with religious exemptions to opt out of the curriculum to which they object. We need to stand up for secular education that centers on science-based medical information.
The Montana Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee has a hearing on this bill this Wednesday, Feb. 3. Please click on the red “Take Action” button to use our simple, automated system to contact the members of this committee and urge them to squash this bill. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
