The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board wrote in support of House Bill 2675, which would modernize Illinois' sexual health education laws to ensure that curricula used by grades 6-12 is medically accurate, age-appropriate and complete. They write:

But if a district decides to teach sex ed to its 11- to 18-year-olds, it would have to use a curriculum that includes instruction on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The bill stresses abstinence until marriage, calling abstinence “the only protection that is 100 percent effective against” unwanted pregnancy and STDs.

That’s the right message for children and it helps quiet critics, who dismiss this bill as part of a ploy by lawmakers intent “on the early sexualization of children.”

No, this bill only sets a basic standard: give children information to equip them to live in the modern world. Cook County, for example, has the highest number of cases of gonorrhea and syphilis in the nation.

Read the whole thing.