Editing Sex Ed

Representative Thomas Hooker introduced Bill Number 4338 in Sept. 2015. The bill targets sex education,  proposing changes to the sex ed curriculum in Michigan.

“My concern is that Planned Parenthood has kind of a reverse incentive for teaching sex education,” Rep. Hooker said. “I know that we as a state, and we as a federal government, fund Planned Parenthood and give them our tax dollars every year, $527,000,000 last year… that they banked $550,000,000 for a ‘non-profit’. Again, I’m putting parentheses around it because they’re not a non-profit. They are making a big profit. They made somewhere around 1.2 billion last year.”

Over the past few months, Planned Parenthood has been under attack for allegedly selling fetal tissue for profit. Many pro-life advocates and high-ranking politicians have supported these claims, which almost caused the government to shut down on Oct. 1, 2015. Despite these accusations, the latest research has shown that Planned Parenthood does not, in fact, make a profit, and to refute these attacks even more, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards announced that the non-profit would no longer be taking reimbursement for fetal tissue. While Planned Parenthood evaded defunding in Congress, it still faces scrutiny throughout the country.

Although Ann Arbor leans heavily to the Democratic side of the political spectrum, the rest of Michigan is generally conservative when it comes to state elections. In Lansing, many state representatives continue to propose laws that would limit sex education and prevent Planned Parenthood from presenting to students.

“I felt that it was important to eliminate Planned Parenthood from teaching sex education,” Rep. Hooker said. The bill would prevent Planned Parenthood, and any other individual or entity that provides abortion, abortion counseling or abortion referrals from giving presentations in health classes.

The bill would also limit a student’s ability to learn how to correctly use a condom and their ability to practice on any object: plastic models of penises, bananas or an instructor’s arm. Hooker draws comparisons between the condoms Planned Parenthood offers to the public and whether or not students should be learning from Planned Parenthood presenters.

“The condoms, for example, that Planned Parenthood passes out are one of the least effective condoms,” Hooker said. “It has the highest failure rate. Now there’s a reason for that, why would you want, as a organization that’s teaching sex ed, to offer to young people the least effective contraceptive condom? What do you suppose would be a reason for that?… because you want them to get pregnant so that they’ll come to you for an abortion or an STD.”

Planned Parenthood has previously offered Lifestyle condoms to the public—supplied to them by the government. Though these condoms have higher failure rates than brands like Trojan, they are still effective, failing at a rate of slightly more than 1.5 percent. However, regardless of the brand, condoms as a whole have been proven to be 98-99 percent effective; this effectiveness decreases to  80 percent when users do not follow the correct steps to put the condom on. Planned Parenthood has recently discontinued their use of Lifestyle condoms and is looking into offering Trojan or One condoms instead.

Hooker believes that adolescents have the ability and responsibility to remain safe, and that Planned Parenthood treats teens as if they need guidance.

“I talked to other instructors in Kent County, talked to hundreds of students over the years, and again one of the things that I try to help them understand is that they’re not an animal,” Hooker said. “They’re different from animals. You have the ability to say no, you have the responsibility to say no.”

Gabe Linderman, a senior at Greenhills High School, has been a Planned Parenthood Peer Educator for two years. Peer Educators are a community resource for teens, and give presentations on HIV/AIDS, contraception and abstinence in health classes.

“This bill is close to worst case scenario for sex educators in Michigan. Not only will it obliterate any chance of Michigan falling from 20th in teen pregnancy rates, but House Bill 4883 will set the state back years in education,” Linderman said. “It’s based off of a horrible piece of information that contraceptive education increases sexual activity. The very basis of this bill is flawed on many levels.”

In studies performed by Guttmacher Institute, a leading organization in reproductive research, comprehensive sex education has consistently been shown as the more effective method of sex education. Comprehensive sex ed is most commonly found in northern European countries like Denmark and the Netherlands, where teen pregnancy and STI rates are much lower than the United States. However, not everyone recognizes this data, including Representative Hooker.

“A lot of studies show that the abstinence-only program actually is successful,” Hooker said. “One of the reasons why if there is less abortion in Michigan today, it’s not because Planned Parenthood is not trying, it’s because the word is getting out, obviously, and young people are starting to realize that life is valuable, life is important.”

Despite the conservative views held by many state representatives, whether the bill will pass is debatable.

“It is unclear whether Governor  Snyder would veto this bill or not, but chances that it gets to the governor’s desk are slim to none,” Linderman said.

Rep. Hooker is hopeful, and considers Governor Snyder a prospective ally.

“I’m hopeful that we can move it forward,” Hooker said. “Obviously, with the videos that have come out and everything else, Planned Parenthood has been exposed as something less than, I think, the majority of people in our state would want to have filling their children’s minds with the ‘proper role of sex’.”

The bill is currently in the Committee of Education and will proceed to the House if it is approved. Meanwhile, politicians and educators must wait to find out the future of sex education in Michigan.

“Not only is this a dangerous political stunt that puts millions of youth at a huge risk, but Rep. Hooker is playing with political fire,” Linderman concluded.