Report Title:

Medically Accurate Sex Information

Description:

Requires recipients of state funding that provide information or offer 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.

2060

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO HEALTH.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that American teens are facing a major health crisis. Each year, a million American teens become pregnant. Approximately fifty per cent of all teenagers age fourteen to eighteen have engaged in sexual intercourse, causing unintended pregnancies in nearly two-thirds of these teens, one of the many consequences of their actions, by the time they reach adulthood.

Additionally, the rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) such as gonorrhea are on the rise for the first time in thirteen years, and other STDs such as chlamydia and syphilis continue to significantly impact our teen population. In fact, one in four new cases involving STDs occur in adolescents.

In July 2001, then Surgeon General David Satcher released his long-awaited report, "Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior." Citing research findings on the effectiveness of various program interventions, the Satcher report stressed 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."

"Healthy People 2010," the United States Department of Health and Human Services' set of official goals for improved public health also emphasizes the need to reduce teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates, in part, through comprehensive sex information programs.

The state department of health, to help Hawaii youth make decisions that promote healthy behaviors, informs youth that abstention from sexual intercourse is the surest and most responsible way to prevent unintended pregnancies and STDs.

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. Chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§321- Medically accurate sex information. (a) Any recipient of state funding that provides information or offers programs regarding:

(1) Sex;

(2) Family planning;

(3) Pregnancy counseling; or

(4) 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.

(b) For the purposes of this section:

"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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