Congress will be reviewing the Prevention First Act, a new bill that is causing Otterbein students to speak out.
Sponsored by representatives from Nevada and New York, as well as Planned Parenthood, the bill intends "to expand access to preventive health care services that help reduce unintended pregnancy, reduce the number of abortions and improve access to women's health care."
Because the bill is supported by abortion-rights advocates, such as Sen. Harry Reid, the bill received an abortion-rights persona.
That's misleading according to one Otterbein student in support of the bill.
"One of the main goals of the act is to replace the current, abstinence-only sex education, with a more comprehensive sex education," said Otterbein College Democrats (OCD) President Chelsea Ferrin.
OCD and Otterbein's chapter of Voices for Planned Parenthood (VOX) helped sponsor an educational meeting last Thursday to help students on campus understand how the bill will affect them.
"No one is actually pro-abortion, we just have a different way of looking at and solving the problem," Ferrin said. "Too many people are undereducated about emergency contraceptive and birth control in general, which I personally believe has lead to so many teen pregnancies as well as so many abortions."
Others still doubt that the bill is not actually promoting abortion-rights education and methods.
"Between the lines, one finds out that what this bill is really all about is an escalating amount of government money for the marketing of abortifacient birth control devices and chemicals, brainwashing techniques for our children masquerading as sex education," Judi Brown of The American Life League said in an article on the AFL's Web site.
The bill stresses more education on preventative methods including abstinence, contraceptives and the Plan B® pill.
"If we just took the time to teach people about safe sex, instead of trying to scare them away from it, we might actually see the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions decrease," Ferrin said. t&c;
