OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) —Legislation that authorizes instruction programs to teach Oklahoma high school students that life begins at conception was approved Tuesday by a state House committee.

A spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s largest anti-abortion organization, told The Associated Press that Oklahoma is the first state in the nation to introduce such a bill, which would create a state-funded informational campaign “for the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society.”

Members of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee voted 17-2 for the Humanity of the Unborn Child Act, which would require Oklahoma public high schools to teach students in grades nine through 12 “about the humanity of a child in utero,” including details about how a fetus develops at certain stages of a pregnancy. The measure now goes to the full House for debate and a vote.

Its author, Rep. Ann Coody, told committee members the purpose of the bill is to show high school students “the humanity of an unborn child.”

“The purpose is to show that he’s a real human being,” the Lawton Republican said. “That child is still a person, and we’re killing a person.”

She said the bill could not be implemented this year because of looming budget constrictions, but that its adoption would send a clear statement on the Legislature’s public policy on abortion.

The bill says “the Legislature hereby affirms that it is the public policy of the state of Oklahoma to make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion and to implement that judgment by the allocation of public funds.” Parents would be able to “opt out” of the instruction for their children.

An amendment added by Coody would prevent any funds from being used for abortion counseling or sex education. House Democratic Leader Scott Inman of Oklahoma City suggested that the bill ignores the root causes of abortions in the state, including poverty and inadequate health care.

Coody, a former public school teacher, counselor and principal, said she believes sex education amounts to “condoning sexuality before marriage.”

“The only sure way to prevent pregnancy is not to have intercourse,” she said.

Public information programs would help public school students become more aware of the biological development of a fetus “with a view toward helping young people understand that the entity in the womb is a growing living member of the human family,” Tony Lauinger, chairman of Oklahomans for Life and executive vice president of the National Right to Life Committee, told the AP.

The knowledge gained would make it less likely that an abortion would be sought, Lauinger said.

Derrick Jones, communications director for the National Right to Life Committee, said in an email that Oklahoma is the first state to propose such a program.
Information provided by the organization indicates informational programs would be modeled after federal drug-free schools campaigns and would provide information to educate children “about the humanity of the unborn child and about alternatives to abortion.”

“Through pamphlets, audiovisual materials, school curricula, and advertisements, such a public campaign could have a significant impact in reducing the incidence of abortion,” the organization said.

SOURCE: 

http://www.koco.com/news/oklahoma-house-panel-approves-bill-to-teach-students-life-begins-at-conception/38165388