In the News

Harold Valentin, The Tampa Tribune
April 30, 2008

FOREST HILLS - Not only is lack of sex education a problem for high school students in Hillsborough County, said members of Teen Source Theatre, but also misinformation.

Source teens say a few popular myths include: Only gay people can get AIDS; pregnancy can be prevented if sex occurs in a swimming pool; and condoms don't work.

Blake High School junior Emily Compton, a three-year Source member, said staff at her school do not talk about the merits of condom use, only the contraceptive's failure rate.

Will Dunham, Reuters
April 24, 2008
Programs teaching U.S. schoolchildren to abstain from sex have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins, health groups told Congress on Wednesday.

The Bush administration, however, voiced continuing support for such programs during a hearing before a House of Representatives panel even as many Democrats called for cutting off federal money for so-called abstinence-only instruction.

Tony Plakas, South Florida Sun Sentinel
April 23, 2008

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is why some Florida legislators are hoping to mandate that all women, seeking an abortion, review an ultrasound image of their fetus prior to consenting to the procedure. Although ultrasounds performed in the first trimester are considered medically unnecessary, the proposed law commands physicians to conduct them. The action also attempts to distort the directive of informed consent into a tactic to dissuade women from terminating their pregnancies.

Editorial, Orlando Sentinel
April 23, 2008
There is no relationship more deserving of privacy than that between a patient and her doctor.

That's why it's wrong for the Legislature -- particularly with its Republican leadership's professed goals of diminishing the size and scope of government -- even to consider injecting its whims on women seeking legal abortions.

Editorial, Tallahassee Democrat

Florida legislators have found some solid ground on which to build grandstanding bills this session.

Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, did it on the behinds of children, ushering through his "pull your pants up" bill without breaking a sweat. Then Rep. Trey Traviesa, R-Tampa, and Sen. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, stood on the backs of women in a flagrant appeal to conservative voters during an election year.

Catherine Dolinksi & Nicola M. White, The Tampa Tribune
April 17, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - A group of Republican senators who helped kill legislation in 2005 to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case may stand with Democrats again this year to oppose a controversial abortion bill.

Central Florida News 13
April 15, 2008
TALLAHASSEE -- A bill from Winter Garden Sen. Dan Webster (R) requiring abortion patients to view an ultrasound of the fetus passed its final committee hearing in Tallahassee Tuesday, and was set to be heard by the full Senate.

The bill has already passed the House.

"In current law, there is an ultrasound evaluation to be performed prior to an abortion in the second and third trimester," Webster said. "This bill expands that law to include the first trimester."

Frank Shannon, Tampa Bay Online
April 15, 2008
Three pieces of anti-abortion legislation passed in the Florida House on April 2, one in large part because of the efforts of its sponsor, Republican Rep. Trey Traviesa of District 56.

Sofie Tucker, Special To The Sentinel
April 12, 2008

A highly disturbing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in four teenage girls in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease, which equates to almost 3 million young women. This is an alarmingly high statistic when you take into account the numerous outlets for sex education. It is disheartening and baffling that sex-education programs and millions of dollars of funding can't prevent such a surge.

Claudia Zequeira, Sentinel Staff Writer
April 14, 2008

In theory, Florida's schools are supposed to teach sex education by promoting abstinence as the way to avoid pregnancy and disease.

But the reality of sex ed in Florida varies from school district to school district.

In Orange County, for example, schools teach students about condoms and birth-control pills.

InOsceola County, the curriculum is all abstinence all the time, with no mention of condoms.