Way to keep it classy, Ohio.

[stephm0188]

Ohio Sex Ed Bill Threatens Teachers With $5K fine.

A two-year budget bill advanced by Ohio's state House of
Representatives on Tuesday would defund Planned Parenthood, redirect
that state money to Christian-run "crisis pregnancy centers," and impose
a fine of up to $5,000 on teachers who provide certain kinds of sex
education instruction to their students.

The sex education amendment to the budget bill, introduced by Rep.
Lynn Wachtmann (R), encourages schools to teach abstinence-only
education and bans sexual education that condones "any gateway sexual
activity or health message that encourages students to experiment with
sexual activity." The amendment also prohibits teachers from
distributing contraceptive materials and bans public schools from using
the services of any individual or organization who “endorses student
nonabstinence from sexual activity as an appropriate or acceptable
behavior, or if that individual or organization promotes, endorses,
advocates, or condones gateway sexual activity.”

Instructors who violate the law could be sued in court for up to $5,000.

State Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern told the Toledo Blade that Republicans are “bent on outlawing sexuality and reverting to the Dark Ages."

"If this legislature focused on what really mattered, we could get a
lot done. Instead, too many of my colleagues have this bizarre
attraction to these extreme issues," he said.

Wachtmann did not immediately return HuffPost's calls for comment.

Another provision of the House budget bill would redirect about $1.4
million in state family planning funds from Planned Parenthood to other
local health providers and crisis pregnancy centers, which are
Christian-owned organizations whose mission is to convince women not to
have abortions. Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio provides health and
family planning services to about 100,000 women each year at 27 clinics
across the state. If the bill passes, all of the Planned Parenthood
clinics would be moved to the bottom of the priority list for state
funding because three of them provide abortions.

All
abortions provided at Planned Parenthood clinics are paid for privately
by the patient, because the Hyde Amendment prohibits any federal
dollars from being used to fund the procedure. But Republicans have long
argued that Planned Parenthood indirectly uses public grants to pay for
all of its services, including abortions.

State Rep. Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) said at a hearing on the bill last week
that if Planned Parenthood wants to receive more federal funds, it
should stop providing abortions at all of its clinics. “If the hang-up
is abortion, and you only have three clinics that are doing it, and
there are other places women could go, why do you persist in having
those clinics when it is putting your good work in jeopardy?” he asked Stephanie Kight, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.

Kight said the thousands of Ohio women who use Planned Parenthood as
their primary health care provider can attest to the fact that it is not
a bottom-tier provider. “It’s interesting that they would introduce a
bill that would require us to be something that we’re not, while we’re
the most-trusted provider for women’s health care" in the state, she
said.

[smock]

Yes, because if a teenager decides to french kiss someone, somewhere there must be a teacher who's to blame!

[WOT?*]

I just had a talk with my granddaughter's first grade teacher. She found a letter GD2 had written to our neighbor boy that she has a crush on. In FIRST grade. This brings back pretty bad memories of a letter I found her mother had written in sixth grade to a boy she had a crush on. I'm not talking "I think you're cute." I'm talking "I have dreams about you" and fairly explicit. Dad used to have people move in so he wouldn't be alone, so there were times that he had couples sleeping on the sofa, sharing a room with the boys, etc. I'd come over and kick everyone out (because I still owned the house until we were divorced, tyvm). I had to have (another) sit-down with DD2 at twelve years old to discuss appropriate boundaries and sexual behavior and boys and respect. She decided to move in with her dad at fourteen because my husband and I "had too many rules." It seems the pattern is developing with her seven year old who grew up seeing her mom living with various guys and needing relationships for validation. Thank goodness my husband and I have custody and have her in counseling to learn boundaries. She really needs to learn appropriate behaviors because she didn't get it from her mom. Her mom didn't get it from me (and it seems she's not getting it from CPS, counselors or anywhere else either.)

I lived in Ohio for twelve years. Thank GOD I moved from there shortly after SSM was voted unconstitutional by the idiot electorate. Brain Drain is rampant, whether it is the intelligentsia leaving or the idiots and their elected representatives staying.

[Deleted]

I thought the legislature was too busy with more important things, like eliminating our tenure and tying our pay to some value-added formula that no one can explain.

[debatethis]

Oh, I see. THIS is how the GOP is going to modernize and focus on the economy for 2016. Got it.