STAND. COM. REP. NO.  744-08

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

 

RE:   H.B. No. 464

      H.D. 2

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 464, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to require any recipient of state funding that provides sexual health education to provide medically accurate, factual information that is age-appropriate and includes reproductive education on both abstinence and contraception.

 

     The Department of Education, Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, American Civil Liberties Union, Hawaii State Democratic Women's Caucus, Oahu County Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, American Association of University Women, and a concerned individual supported this bill.  The Hawaii Family Forum, Catholic Charities of Hawaii, Pro-Family Hawaii, Hawaii Right to Life, Catholic Conference, and several concerned individuals opposed this measure.

 

     Your Committee finds that the United States Congress authorized a scientific evaluation of the Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Program.  A 2007 report of the results of this multi-year study revealed that teenagers who participated in abstinence-only education programs were just as likely to engage in sexual intercourse, including unprotected sexual intercourse, as teenagers who did not participate in abstinence-only education programs.  Additionally, teenagers who participated in abstinence-only education programs were more likely to report that condoms are never effective at preventing sexually transmitted diseases than teenagers who did not participate in abstinence-only programs.  Your Committee also notes that, for the first time since 1991, birth rates have increased among teenagers aged 15 to 19, according to a December 2007 report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

     Your Committee has amended this bill, with the prior concurrence of the Chair of your Committee on Health, by deleting the exemption for certain federal funding recipients, thereby revising the language of the measure to reflect its original scope.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 464, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 464, H.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

TOMMY WATERS, Chair