North Carolina Closer Than Ever to Real Sex Education

Sean Konofsky, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, writes in his reader diary on innovative new sex-education legislation in North Carolina,and how progress could be just around the corner.

It has been quite a year for North Carolina. The state voted for Barack
Obama, defeated Elizabeth Dole, and elected the first female governor
(who happens to also be pro-choice). But the changes don’t just stop
there. With changing demographics in our state and a clarion call for
sanity from Washington, comprehensive sex education could just be just
around the corner.

Innovative new sex-ed legislation in North Carolina has been moving
very quickly this session partly because the approach is so new. The
Healthy Youth Act would guarantee complete parental choice in picking
the sex-ed curriculum for students – a huge improvement over the
abstinence-only currently mandated for the entire state. The bill
cleared three committees and the State House in just six weeks and won
with a ten vote spread in the full House.

What has changed this session? Letting parents decide.

Opponents to comprehensive sex-ed are having a hard time opposing
parental choice and at every turn the media message has always focused
on choice and how much choice their should be. In short, we are
winning. There is strong evidence that most parents want comprehensive.
The problem of course is that they think their kids already get it.

Stay tuned for more successes on this bill at www.ProChoiceNC.org and ask any family or friends you have in NC to take action at our site too.