Republican Rep. Bill Wright, the bill sponsor, says:
We’ve been culturally watered down to think we have to teach about sex, about having sex and how to get away with it, which is intellectually dishonest. Why don’t we just be honest with them upfront that sex outside marriage is devastating?
Democrat Rep. Carol Spackman says:
You cannot speak of abstinence without talking to students about methods of birth control that are not certain, about protecting oneself from [sexually transmitted diseases] and all the things that can happen in a negative sense to a young person who engages in sex. It’s really immoral not to teach kids about what the consequences are.
The bill now goes on to the state Senate.