Oklahoma’s fetal education in public school praised by pro-lifers, slammed as ‘totalitarian’
As the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Texas abortion law and refused to hear the Washington state case protecting freedom of conscience, pro-lifers have rallied around Oklahoma’s plan to start teaching fetal development in public schools, described as a “model” for other states.
The Oklahoma education bill requires “…public schools to clearly educate students on clear, objective, undeniable facts of human biology” writes Life Site News, adding that “this is basic science.”
The law, HB 2797, which goes into effect Nov. 1, requires both the state’s Department of Health and its Department of Education to work toward “the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society.”
photo: 14 week fetus photo/ Your Pregnancy week by week
Slate was outraged, creating bizarre Straw man arguments such as stating that “Critics have already raised concerns about what subjects might suffer to make room in the school day for anti-abortion propagandizing.”
The article added that “while Oklahoma’s methods for ‘achieving an abortion-free society’ have a totalitarian tinge, the goal of creating a society in which abortion happens infrequently makes total sense. That’s why, during debates over the bill, Democrats advocated supplementing it with strategies that might actually work,” referring to more sex education.
The other angle of criticism is funding and the burden on the teachers.
“Adding yet another mandate on [teachers] and forcing them to have those very emotional and political conversations with young people just takes away instructional time from other areas,” Democratic State Representative Emily Virgin said.
In their praise of Oklahoma, Life Site adds that “… we would get a populace vastly more receptive to every other pro-life bill and argument—and unlikely to simply flip-flop by the next poll. People would know they were hearing a lie as soon as somebody said ‘clump of cells.’ They would have a concrete grasp of what abortion destroys that they would take into every conversation, giving added weight to abortion restrictions and undermining smears that pro-lifers are simply out to control women.”
Slate closed out with a slam on Republicans in general: “It’s long been said that Republicans’ passion for the unborn doesn’t extend past delivery. In Oklahoma, conservatives believe the rights of fetuses should commandeer valuable class-time and over-subscribed state dollars, regardless of the costs to actual children.”
photo Peter anemoneprojects via Flickr
