 "Photo: Liz Moskowitz; The Daily Texan")
To make information about sexual health and contraception more readily available in Texas schools, state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and state Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, authored the Texas Education Works Act and presented the legislation Monday.
If passed, the bill would require Texas public schools that teach sex education to present students with medically accurate, age-appropriate information about sexually contracted infections and contraception, the bill’s authors said.
“Only through information will teens have the tools they need to make responsible decisions,” Ellis said. “It is true that abstinence is the only 100-percent way to avoid STIs and pregnancy, but experience has also taught us that abstinence from education does not work.”
The state of Texas has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country. Every 1,000 girls between the ages of 16 and 19 in Texas, 63 will become pregnant, said Austin gynecologist Diana Wise.
“I believe that teen pregnancy in Texas is literally an epidemic,” Castro said. “It is harming so many lives of young women and men who are mothers and fathers. It is harming the lives of the children who are not receiving the care and attention that parents who properly plan for families are able to give.”
According to the current law governing sex education in Texas schools, teachers must emphasize abstinence above all other methods of birth control. If passed, the Education Works Act would remove this section from the current law.
Under the act, parents would still have the option to prevent their children from learning about sexual health in school.
“As much as we’re changing the law, parents still have the final choice,” Castro said.
Wise said that teenage mothers are much less likely to receive prenatal care and graduate from high school. Sexually transmitted disease rates in the South are three times what they are in the rest of the country, she said.
“Our teens deserve to learn the scientific facts about contraception and sexually transmitted disease prevention,” Wise said. “I encourage the Legislature to support this bill and to present our teens with accurate information they can use to keep themselves healthy.”
State Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, a co-author of the bill, said education is the best way to fix these problems.
“If we do not engage in educating our kids, then we will pay tremendously later,” Alvarado said. “We will pay with a higher dropout rate. We will pay with increased health-care costs. We will pay with kids entering our criminal justice system.”
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