There was a great sense of shock and outrage at the live-sex demonstration at Northwestern University this past week. But believe it or not, under a new sex-ed bill being considered in the IL Senate (SB1619), everything that was done at this Northwestern sex-ed class would be a demonstration of "abstinence.” Not only will this new sex-ed bill mandate schools in the state to teach what they call “comprehensive sex-ed” but it would also water down the meaning of abstinence to include "Northwestern" style sex-ed.
Unsatisfied with the elimination of ALL funding for abstinence education in Illinois, this bill goes further to prohibit the teaching of true abstinence-until-marriage programs since, according to the law, they are "biased" toward marriage. Illinois law currently defines abstinence as until marriage, and for good reason. Marriage provides an objective standard that gives the context to teaching abstinence. Abstinence programs teach that marriage is objectively the safest, healthiest context for sexual activity, regardless of anyone’s personal opinion and yet, this bill deletes every instance of until-marriage in the current code. Once the objective standard of marriage is removed, abstinence becomes a meaningless subjective term that essentially refers to anything that does not result in pregnancy. Extreme as it may be, Northwestern University's sex-ed class graphically illustrates what may soon qualify as “abstinence” in the State of Illinois.
By: Scott Phelps, Executive Director, Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership, Chicago
Read the Chicago Sun Times account of Northwestern's class
Read Scott Phelps' Letter to the Editor Published in the Chicago Sun Times
