The latest assault on Planned Parenthood was launched Tuesday with a committee hearing a proposal to ban the organization from teaching or supplying materials about sex education to schools.
Dozens of people showed up to support a bill by Sen. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, whose bill also would mandate schools notify parents when any outsider presents information regarding human sexuality.
Paxton said he is concerned that Planned Parenthood will attempt to promote a pro-abortion agenda to students.
Many of the speakers also said they distrusted Planned Parenthood and that they supported a strict abstinence-only curriculum. Teaching about contraception sends a mixed message to teenagers that premarital sex is acceptable, some of the parents testified.
The bill was left pending, but Education Committee chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said he liked the bill enough to become a co-author.
Current state law provides any sex education instruction in public schools must primarily stress abstinence. Parents must be notified about sex instructions offered by schools and and can keep their children out of that class if they chose.
Surveys show that about 70 percent of high school seniors in Texas are sexually active and the state has the fourth highest teenage pregnancy rate in the nation.
Last session, the Legislature de-funded Planned Parenthood and removed the organization from the women’s health program.