Episode 4.1: Let’s Talk About Sex Education

In this episode, Lindsay, Mette, and Leigh meet with two guests from the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health (ACASH) to hear how the the overturn of Roe continues to shape Sex Education policy in Alabama. Christina Clark Okarmus, the Executive Director of ACASH, and ShaKaya Darrington, member of the Youth Advocacy Group, explain how sex education is a critical component to Reproductive Justice as children and teens deserve age appropriate, medically accurate, comprehensive education about their bodies, how to recognize sexual abuse, how to prevent unwanted sexual advances, how to negotiate safe sex, how to prevent unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and a host of important information that can save their lives. We discuss the history of sex education in Alabama, and the current attempt by Alabama lawmakers to require an “abstinence only until marriage” policy as the only safe option while also prohibiting demonstrations or conversations around contraception. Once again Alabama lawmakers are ignoring expert data that proves just what parents want for their kids and what students need. They are ignoring data and expert medical opinions that prove abstinence only policies are ineffective. They particularly ignore students that have been forced into early sexual encounters against their will, and instead espouse the unrealistic idea that marriage will somehow protect them. Parents and experts agree that our kids deserve better.