Report Title:

Reproductive Health Information

Description:

Requires recipients of state funding, that provide information or programs regarding sex information, to provide medically accurate, factual information that is age-appropriate and includes information on both abstinence and contraception.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2079

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to reproductive health information.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. American teenagers are facing a reproductive health crisis. Each year, a million American teenagers become pregnant. Approximately fifty percent of all high school students have engaged in sexual intercourse. By the time they have reached their senior year, nearly two-thirds (more than sixty-four percent) of teenagers have engaged in sexual intercourse. Unintended pregnancy is only one of the consequences of this behavior. Gonorrhea rates are on the rise for the first time in thirteen years and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as chlamydia and syphilis continue to significantly impact the young population. In fact, one in four new cases of STDs occur in adolescents.

In July of 2001, then-Surgeon General David Satcher released his long-awaited Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior. Citing research findings on the effectiveness of various program interventions, the Satcher report stresses the importance of information on sex that balances encouragement of abstinence for young people with ensuring "awareness of optimal protection from sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy, for those who are sexually active ...." Satcher's conclusion is echoed in Health People 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services' set of official national goals for improved public health, which emphasizes the need to reduce teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates in part through comprehensive sex information programs.

The state department of health, in order to help students make decisions that promote healthy behaviors, instructs students that abstention from sexual intercourse is the surest and most responsible way to prevent unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and consequent emotional distress. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that any instruction, counseling, or information relating to sex shall be medically accurate, factually based, and objective.

SECTION 2. Section 321-111, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§321-111 Sexually transmitted disease prevention program. (a) The departments of health and education shall cooperate with each other and other public and private authorities as they may deem advisable for the education of minors and members of the general public on sexually transmitted diseases and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. For the purpose of this section, "minor" means any person fourteen years of age or older and under the age of majority.

(b) The department of health shall formulate, supervise, and coordinate throughout the State an educational program for the purposes of preventing sexually transmitted diseases, instructing the general public in detecting the diseases, and encouraging early treatment.

(c) The information shall be made available upon request to all minors and members of the general public without parental consent and the information shall be distributed to all public school counselors requesting educational materials concerning sexually transmitted disease prevention, detection, and treatment.

(d) Any recipient of state funding that provides information or offers programs regarding sex, family planning, pregnancy counseling, or sexually transmitted diseases shall provide medically accurate, factual information that is age-appropriate and that includes information on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

For the purposes of this subsection:

"Factual information" includes, but is not limited to, medical, psychiatric, psychological, empirical, and statistical statements.

"Medically accurate" means verified or supported by research conducted in compliance with scientific methods and published in peer-reviewed journals, where appropriate, and recognized as accurate and objective by professional organizations and agencies with expertise in the relevant field, such as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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