Women’s Division backs U.S. sex ed legislation
United Methodist Women's Division President Inelda
González speaks at the organization's October meeting in Stamford,
Conn., where members endorsed comprehensive sex education legislation in
the U.S. Congress.
UMNS photos by Cassandra Heller. |
By Linda Bloom*
Oct. 14, 2008 | STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS)
United Methodist Women are supporting proposed U.S. legislation to fund comprehensive sex education at the state level.
Directors of the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, endorsed REAL (the Responsible Education About Life Act)
during the division’s Oct. 10-13 annual meeting.
|
Women's Division executive Julie
Taylor takes notes during the meeting.
|
The Women’s Division is the administrative arm of United Methodist
Women. Inelda González of Harlingen, Texas, is the division president
for the next four years.
"As people of faith, we believe it is a moral imperative to provide
children and teens with all the information they need to make
responsible and informed decisions about their health," said the adopted
resolution on "Reproductive Freedom for All Women."
UMW members are urged to contact their congressional representatives and
circulate petitions to voice support for the act, which is contained in
Senate bill 972 and House bill 1653.
The legislation would provide $204 million in state funding for programs
presenting "honest, medically accurate, complete, age-appropriate sex
education," according to the Women’s Division resolution.
The Women’s Division resolution also calls for "access and availability
of affordable birth control (including emergency contraception) and
comprehensive family planning for every woman in consultation with her
doctor, without interference from pharmacists or medical personnel."
The question was raised whether to include emergency contraception,
popularly known as the "morning-after pill," but directors declined to
discuss the issue and voted overwhelmingly for the resolution as
written.
The RENEW Network, an evangelical renewal group focused on women in The
United Methodist Church, is criticizing the division’s support for the
REAL Act. In a statement issued Oct. 14, RENEW President Faye Short
cited studies in favor of programs for sexual abstinence and expressed
disappointment about the support of legislation "that emphasizes
comprehensive sex education with little or no emphasis upon abstinence."
Julie Taylor, a Women’s Division executive, told United Methodist News
Service that while federal money already had been allocated to state
abstinence-only programs over the past eight years, the comprehensive
nature of the REAL Act is "part of a step toward prevention" of unwanted
pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
“As people of faith, we believe it is a
moral imperative to provide children and teens with all the information
they need to make responsible and informed decisions about their
health.”
–Women's Division Resolution Liza
Kittle of RENEW condemned such sexual education programs for giving
little attention to messages of abstinence and focusing more on "topics
parents find offensive," ranging from masturbation to the use of
condoms.
Taylor particularly noted the importance of education about condoms as
protection against HIV infection and said that not talking about condoms
in school could be akin "to signing a death warrant" for some teens.
K ittle, who attended the Women’s Division meeting, criticized the
division for the lack of open discussion before the vote and for using a
denominational focus on global health "to increase their activism with
the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice."
The denomination’s membership in the coalition has aroused controversy,
particularly in relation to the coalition’s pro-choice position on
abortion. But continued membership of both the Women’s Division and
United Methodist Board of Church and Society was reaffirmed last spring
by the 2008 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination’s top
legislative body.
Taylor noted that the coalition represents a variety of viewpoints on
reproductive issues and added that participation "gives us an
opportunity to voice what our church’s stance is. Like all our
coalitions, we don’t embrace everything the organization might do."
Comprehensive sexuality education is a key concern for coalition
members. "What we all agree is that it would be better not to have to
get to that point (abortion)," she said.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Women’s Division
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
HR 1653 |
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