The Florida Department of Education is pushing some districts in the state to narrow the scope of what’s being taught in sexual education classes. Among the topics the state is discouraging are contraception, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. The new directive was first reported by The Orlando Sentinel.
An alternative curriculum provided by the state places more emphasis on abstinence as a way of preventing unwanted pregnancies, and scales back education on the effectiveness or lack thereof in other methods of pregnancy-prevention. Among lessons the state is discouraging are the usage of pictures depicting reproductive anatomy, and instruction on the correct usage of contraceptive measures. Orange County is among the districts who are pivoting to the language the Education Department is stressing.
Though not all school districts in Florida have reportedly been spoken to by the state in regards to alternate sex ed curricula, the state has the power to veto learning material which isn’t in-line with its educational priorities. The only alternative for districts that don’t want to comply is to drop sexual education altogether, which they are permitted to do.
Since 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis has worked with his Education Department and the Florida GOP-majority legislature to draw Florida’s education policies significantly more in line with socially conservative principles, placing boundaries on the presence of sexual curriculum and the presence of LGBTQ-related topics and information in public schools. This came to a head with the Parental Rights in Education bill (often derided as ‘Don’t Say Gay’), which passed in 2022 before being eased in a court settlement earlier this year.
In defense of this change, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education argued to do otherwise would be to encourage teenage sexuality. “Florida law requires schools to emphasize the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy,” Sydney Booker said in comments to The Associated Press. “A state government should not be emphasizing or encouraging sexual activity among children or minors and is therefore right to emphasize abstinence.”
Another advocate of abstinence education is The Heritage Foundation, the organization behind the controversial Project 2025 political agenda. In a statement on the Foundation’s website, they argue that abstinence-only education “focus on developing character traits that prepare youths for future-oriented goals” and that it is “crucial to the physical and psycho-emotional well-being of the nation’s youth”.
Modern medical studies, such as one by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, mostly find that abstinence-only education is roughly as effective as no sexual education at all in preventing teen pregnancies. Meanwhile, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists holds that comprehensive sexual education reduces teen pregnancy, sexually-transmitted infections, and overall teenage sexual activity.
The Guttmacher Institute is among those organizations who advocate against abstinence-centric education. “Abstinence-only programs are not designed to equip [teens] with the information about contraceptives, STIs, consent or healthy communication that they need to safely navigate these experiences,” they say. They further argue that the programs “promote judgment, fear, guilt and shame around sex” and create “stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ students [and] increase their risk of HIV infection, substance use disorder, suicide and experiencing violence”.
Beyond merely the argument of contraception versus abstinence, the role of sexual assault in sex ed is being placed under new scrutiny in Florida. The directives of the Florida Department of Education could reduce how much students learn about the realities of and prevention of sexual assault. If their alternative curriculum doesn’t improve upon current practices, it could come at a time when assault numbers are uncomfortably high.
According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 20 boys experience sexual abuse or assault before reaching 18 years old, with 82% of juvenile victims being female. Girls ages 16-19 face quadruple the risk of becoming victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault according to the same data set.
