“Sex is just a small part”
Religious and family groups are well within their rights to oppose the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill, now pending in the Senate, for its incongruity with their personal and moral convictions.
But nobody is entitled to spread falsehoods about a bill that uses a framework that aims to address adolescent pregnancies, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and gender-based violence.
In the past few days there have been impassioned arguments about how a bill authored by Senator Risa Hontiveros supposedly promotes promiscuity among young people by providing them access to contraceptives at a young age without parental consent, and by introducing concepts such as masturbation, thus encouraging sexual behavior among children.
A quick internet search using the key words “adolescent pregnancy prevention bill SB 1979” would point one to the web site of the Philippine Senate, where a downloadable copy of the proposed legislation is available.
Section 12 is clear that “Adolescents shall be allowed to access Sexual and Reproductive Health information and services. Provided that adolescents below 15 years old shall be required to obtain consent from their parents or legal guardians except when they have engaged or are engaging in sexual activity or are survivors of sexual abuse.”
Such provision of services, according to the bill, shall be based on the “principles of non-discrimination and confidentiality, the rights of adolescents, their evolving capacities, and as a life-saving intervention.”
Section 6 meanwhile is about age and development-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education. It tasks the Department of Education with “developing and promoting educational standards, modules, and materials to promote CSE in schools, communities, and other youth institutions.”
The goal, the bill says, is to normalize discussions about adolescent sexuality and reproductive health and to remove stigma at all levels. The Council shall ensure that the CSE is medically accurate, culturally sensitive, rights based, and inclusive and non-discriminatory towards LGBTQIA adolescents.
The CSE – a compulsory part of education — shall include “age and development-appropriate topics such as, but not limited to: human sexuality, informed consent, adolescent reproductive health, effective contraceptive use, disease prevention, HIV/AIDS and the more common sexually transmitted infections (STIs), hygiene, health and nutrition, healthy lifestyles and health seeking-behaviors and practices, gender- sensitivity, gender equality and equity, teen dating, gender-based violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, peer pressure, women’s and children’s rights, digital citizenship and issues like pornography, among others. The purpose of which is to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and values to make informed and responsible choices about their sexual and social relationships.”
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CSE, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is a process of teaching the emotional, physical, and social aspects of sexuality, “The goal is helping children stay safe and prepare for the future. It leads to fewer pregnancies, less disease, and less abuse. It teaches young people about human development, reproduction and healthy relationships, and about how to recognize abuse, resist peer pressure, and understand consent.”
This is just the introduction in the page discussing the myths and truths about CSE. The site is hyperlinked; it’s good reading.
Moreover, the academics Eva Goldfarb, PhD and Lisa Lieberman, PhD, from the Department of Public Health of Montclair State University in New Jersey, looked at three decades of research on CSE and found that “school- based CSE can lower homophobia and homophobic-related bullying, can increase understanding of gender and gender norms, can improve knowledge and skills that support healthy relationships, can build child sex abuse prevention skills, and can reduce dating and intimate partner violence.” Their study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
There is, in fact, DepEd Order 031 series of 2018 online, the policy guidelines on the implementation of CSE at the Department of Education during the previous administration, then under Secretary Leonor Briones. I have no idea whether this was implemented or to what extent. Nonetheless, the Hontiveros bill sounds prospective in terms of the development of CSE policies reflecting the demands of the times.
Ultimately, CSE is less about sex, per se, than it is about making life choices. Not all young people have the privilege of having a reliable support system of family and friends. Many have to fend for themselves or cannot open up to their elders. And, let’s face it: what young person seeks their parents’ approval for engaging in sexual activity? Adolescents, given the noise and stimulus of these challenging times, need to be guided, not solely about sex but about the consequences of their decisions and the dangers of misplaced self-worth.
Conversations about sex can be awkward for some, but guidance on life decisions, autonomy, responsibility, and the future is always good to have.
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