John Ensign: “we all agree that teenage pregnancy is a problem in the United States. And there are various views on the best way to…”

“we all agree that teenage pregnancy is a problem in the United States. And there are various views on the best way to deal with teenage pregnancy and how to prevent it and lower the rate of teenage pregnancies. The Lautenberg-Menendez amendment is an attempt to do that. I think it is a misguided attempt. Let me point out some of the problems that I think are present in this amendment. Let's talk a little bit about what the amendment does. First, sex education decisions have long been left to parents and local communities. When communities offer sex education programs in public schools, parents are typically heavily involved in deciding the scope of that education. Parental and local control of this issue is appropriate because the issues involved are uniquely related to parents' cultural, religious and moral values, and attitudes, as well as those of the community. The Menendez-Lautenberg amendment would send $100 million into localities in an effort to override the parents' and local community's decisions about how to raise their children. It is a prescriptive amendment about how these programs are to be set up. These grants would require recipients to conduct sex education programs and would prohibit the recipients from providing abstinence- only education. All recipients of grant moneys would be required to teach children about all contraceptives, including condoms, the pill, and plan B emergency contraceptives.…”