Women’s Division backs U.S. sex ed legislation

By Linda Bloom*

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

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.

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.

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.

Kittle, 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.