As the 2025 legislative session in Indiana begins to come to a close, a bill regarding sex education curriculum for Hoosier students grades 4-12 continues its journey toward the governor’s desk.
Indiana does not currently have a law requiring sex education to be taught in classrooms but has instruction on HIV and stressing the importance of abstinence. SB 442 requires that if schools wish to teach sex education, it must include links to all materials being used and taught for parents to view on the school’s website, an electronic consent form, a presentation on human growth and development during pregnancy, and the importance of consent to sexual activity.
The bill is authored by Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Centerville, and Sen. Michael Young, R- Indianapolis.
Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, spoke in opposition to the bill in the House on Tuesday.
“The American Journal of Public Health reported a study, and it showed that by 12th grade, 67% of students are already sexually active," she said. "They need more than just abstinence only because they’re obviously not abstinent.”
According to the Sex Education Collaborative, “a group that supports young people’s right to comprehensive and high quality sex education,” Indiana is one of 20 states in the U.S. that does not have a required sex education curriculum for students but has required HIV instruction.
There is currently no law that dictates that material taught in classrooms concerning human sexuality must be medically accurate. Abstinence must be stressed.
“If there's 67% of kids who are sexually active when they graduate, abstinence is too late for them. They need to know how to prevent pregnancy and STIs and terms of contraception. Most don’t know they have an STI,” Errington told TheStatehouseFile.com.
Errington worked as public policy director of Planned Parenthood in Indiana and Kentucky for 17 years before spending four years as a state senator, later switching to state representative.
Organizations like Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates (PPAA), Women4Change, Good Trouble Coalition and Our Choice Coalition are opposed to the bill, as it limits the amount of sex education kids receive as well as being filtered by the state and school boards. The Indiana Reproductive Health and Access Coalition issued a press release on April 7 urging the House Education Committee chair to hold SB 442, calling it an “anti-science bill.”
“With some of the worst maternal and infant health outcomes in the country, Indiana cannot afford to politicize sex education,” wrote the PPAA.
Meanwhile, Rep. Vernon G. Smith, D-Gary, spoke in support of the bill in the House on Tuesday.
“This bill is addressing an issue that we don’t need to necessarily address. However, this bill has some good content in it," he said. "One of the things I like about this bill is to make sure that the board should make decisions or use local control in place.”
SB 442 passed its third reading in the House with 74 yeas 19 nays on Tuesday, then was returned to the Senate, which did not accept the House's amendments to the bill. It will be discussed in a conference committee meeting on Monday.
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