Montrose Republican Sen. Don Coram is leading a state effort to fund a controversial sex education program in Colorado’s public schools, the latest example of his break with his party on hot topics like marijuana, contraceptives and abortion.
In 2013, Colorado banned abstinence-only programs and instead required that sex education, if schools choose to offer it, be comprehensive and discuss contraception, healthy relationships ,and alternative gender and sexual identities. But the requirement has been difficult to enforce, and in testimony to lawmakers in January, students around the state said they were getting abstinence-only education or not getting comprehensive sex ed.
In response, Coram backed a bill that would give grants to schools to fund sex ed, and ensure that abstinence-only programs aren’t used and that state-funded programs follow the law.
Coram, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU all support the view that abstinence-only education doesn’t protect kids from sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies. Coram and both groups referenced research published this month in the American Journal of Public Health that found teens are more likely to avoid pregnancy and STIs without sex education than if they get abstinence-only education.
Coram’s bill, known as House Bill 1032, expands a measure passed in 2013 that required all schools offering sex ed to make it comprehensive – in other words, programs could not discriminate against transgender, lesbian, gay or bisexual students and must teach students about sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence and contraceptives. But that initial bill did not provide money, leaving many poorer and rural districts without the funds for a sex ed program that would meet state requirements. The new bill would set aside $1 million to fund sex ed programs in schools that can’t afford them. Schools and students will not be required to offer or participate in sex ed programs.
The bill has sent shock waves through Coloradans who adamantly oppose comprehensive sex education, particularly its provisions that prohibit language that stigmatizes or shames people who are transgender, lesbian, gay or bisexual.
In January, the bill passed the House Health and Insurance Committee on a party-line vote after hours of emotional testimony from people concerned that comprehensive sex ed would normalize deviancy, experiment with children’s identities and encourage them to be “abnormal.”
The bill highlights Coram’s approach on reproductive issues that sets him apart from his Republican colleagues. Like most Republicans in the Capitol, Coram would like to abolish abortions. But eliminating them involves easier access to contraceptives and sex education programs that steer clear of abstinence-only messages.
HB 1032 would create around 18 grants of $50,000 for school districts to fund a comprehensive sex ed program. The program would not teach kids how to have sex, but would arm them with tools to protect themselves from disease and pregnancy regardless of their sexuality or gender identity, said Lizzy Hinkley, the reproductive rights policy counsel for the Colorado ACLU.
Hinkley sees opponents to Coram’s bill as outliers in a state that elected the nation’s first openly gay governor, Jared Polis.
But Coram is also an outlier. In 2015, he fought to fund a state-run program that provides free IUDs to young women while Republican senators refused to pay for the program. The program had cut teen abortion rates in half, but it ran out of funding, even as it received a national award for its work. At the time, Coram sported an IUD lapel pin and framed the program as the best way to halt abortions.
“Lives do matter,” he said in 2015. “If we’re going to break the cycle of poverty, this is a very good tool.”
On Wednesday, Coram refused to discuss his support of the bill in detail, but referenced a column he wrote last week as an effort to dispel myths about sex ed.
“Do schools and districts need to teach sex ed? Not at all. But if they do, it needs to be complete and medically accurate,” Coram wrote. “Does this bill prohibit schools from talking about abstinence? No. In fact, abstinence is a required component of complete sex ed.”
