What’s the Matter with Tim Ryan’s Backyard

School officials are not sure what has contributed to so many pregnancies, but in response to them, the school is launching a three-prong educational program to address pregnancy, prevention and parenting.

The newspaper also reported that students will face mounting tensions created by unplanned child-rearing responsibilities, causing students to quit school and plan for a GED. This will make it difficult for the Canton City School District to shake its academic watch designation by the state.

According to the Canton Health Department, statistics through July show that 104 of the 586 babies born to Canton residents in Aultman Hospital and Mercy Medical Center had mothers between 11 and 19.

Each year NARAL Pro-Choice America publishes, Who Decides? A State-by-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive Rights. In this guide, the state of Ohio rated a grade of “F”.

Some of the key factors contributing to this failing grade are:

• 91% of Ohio counties have no abortion providers
• Between 1992 and 1996, the number of abortion providers fell from 45 to only 37–an 18% decline

Women in Ohio face numerous barriers when exercising their right to an abortion, including:

• A counseling ban
• An “Informed Consent” 24 hour waiting period
• Health insurance for state employees do not cover abortion except in medical emergencies or in the cases of rape and/or incest
• Minors must receive parental consent before obtaining an abortion
• Only physicians are permitted to perform abortions
• Women eligible for medical assistance may not obtain public funds except in medical emergency or in the cases of rape and/or incest

“Who Decides? A State-by-State Report on the Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights” shows that we are facing the most hostile political environment to women’s reproductive liberty since Roe v. Wade. As a result of increased state restrictions and the first-ever federal ban on abortion procedures which was signed by President Bush, the nation’s grade on reproductive freedom was reduced to its lowest ever, a “D.”

Anti-choice lawmakers and judges are attacking the fundamental right to choose from every angle. State governments are intruding further than they have in years into women’s private lives and decisions. We now have a patchwork of restrictions reminiscent of pre-Roe days. The surge of anti-choice activity at the state level highlights very real concerns about what could happen if the Supreme Court further guts the protections of Roe v. Wade thanks to new justices nominated by President Bush.

This report clearly documents the importance of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio’s mobilization to protect the right to choose, and reinforces the fact that Ohio’s pro-choice majority must act immediately and powerfully to safeguard our liberty or lose it.

Text Imagine classroom props such as Woodies (wooden penises), dental dams (for oral sex) and female condoms (for anal sex). Imagine teachers using these for hands-on practice for 6th to 12th graders.

Too outrageous to believe, I said.

I was wrong. It’s in the pipeline for Ohio public schools. I believed it only after reading copies of grant documents and hand-outs from training sessions, and talking with a Hamilton County teacher who attended and described the Woodies and other things we can’t print in a newspaper.

The Ohio Legislature squelched a radical sex education agenda for schools in the 1970s. But the sex educators are back with a vengance, underground this time, using behind-the-scenes regulatory power of the Ohio Department of Education and Department of Health, with public money from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC). For several years, they’ve been training selective teachers and others to implement a model that has not yet been approved or seen public light until this fall.

Last week, Gov. George Voinovich asked Ohio School Board President Jennifer Sheets for a “thorough review into the Department of Education’s activity on the proposed model,” and halt action until the review is done. He also asked the board to “justify constructing a model (sex ed) program when no such program is required (although permitted) by Ohio law.”