On December 2nd the Opponents of HB 293, The Ohio Prevention First Act, had their turn to testify about the bill.  If you had sat through that hearing not knowing anything about the bill or our goals you would have thought that we are child hating, self serving organizations that want to increase teen and unplanned pregnancies, and want teens to get sexually transmitted infections. 

Witness after witness testified that teens will be destroyed if the state changes from requiring abstinence-only-until-marriage education to a policy that teaches both about abstinence and how to protect yourself once you do become sexually active.  We also heard that it was wrong to require that hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church give emergency contraception to rape survivors in their emergency rooms, even though the catholic bishops have stated that it is OK for Catholic Hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape survivors as long as they conduct a pregnancy test before the provision (which the bill allows for).

You can read all of the testimony by clicking on the links below.