Judge Rules 'Abstinence Only' Sex Education is Illegal

Fresno Country Superior Judge Donald Black has ruled abstinence only programs are in violation of California law and that they promote 'medically inaccurate information.'

With the judge's historic decision, health classes can no longer urge students to remain abstinent until marriage.

In light of the number of unintended pregnancies and the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the US, Judge Black felt that "access to medically and socially appropriate sexual education is an important public right."

The ruling would now apply to over 40,000 students in the Clovis Unified School District.

However since this is only the first ruling on sex education standards in California, there is a wide belief that it could set an important precedent for the rest of the state.

In an interview to San Francisco Chronicle, Director of reproductive justice policy at the ACLU, Phyllida Burlingame said, "This is the first time that abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula have been found to be medically inaccurate."

 She also felt that the ruling would send a strong message to other schools in the area while stressing that "young people need complete, accurate health information required by law."

The suit was filed by a group Clovis parents who felt school district was promoting mainly abstinence related materials to the children. They felt their kids should be better educated on issues like contraception.