Health Education Standards Bill Gets Overhaul

A bill in the Ohio House that would establish health education standards initially contained a provision that said schools, restaurants and health care providers shall post a message about how to deal with problem pregnancies on their bathroom stall doors.

But that part of the bill been scrapped.

Is meant to be Ohio's first set of educational standards for how public schools and health educators teach about pregnancy, fetal development and abortion. Currently, Ohio is the only state in the country that lacks a health education standards law. 

Conservative Christian activist Barry Sheets said one part required signs on bathroom stalls that read: “There are many public and private agencies willing and able to help you carry your child to term and assist you after your child is born," he read aloud in an Ohio House committee hearing.

Melissa Cropper with the Ohio Federation of Teachers testified against the original bill, including that part of it that required the message on doors of bathroom stalls. She noted there could be language barriers given the makeup of Ohio's public schools, especially those in urban areas.

“We are at over 100 different languages we have in our schools," she said.

That part of the bill that required messages on bathroom walls has since been removed, along with $500,000 that would have funded "the unborn child’s humanity/abortion-free society duties and develop the unborn child’s humanity instructional program," and $500 for abstinance-focused sexually transmitted disease education programs.

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