Bipartisan lawmakers call for defunding of ‘disgusting’ Massachusetts sex-ed site

by Kathleen Gilbert

BOSTON, April 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Lawmakers in Massachusetts have reacted to a state-funded sex education website that encourages teens to circumvent state abortion laws, calling it “disgusting” and demanding that it no longer be granted funding. However, the state health department has stood behind the project as a source of “medically accurate health information.”

Maria Talks, a project of the AIDS Action Committee sustained with the help of an annual $100,000 annual grant from the Public Health Department, caught the attention of the Boston Herald this month with its assurance to teens that it’s quick and easy to get a judicial bypass to circumvent the state’s parental consent law for abortion. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/massachusetts-funded-site-tells-teens-getting-an-abortion-is-much-easier-th/

Lawmakers on Tuesday called upon Gov. Deval Patrick to defund the site, the Herald reported yesterday.

“When the story hit the Herald, I received a number of e-mails and calls from constituents who were outraged that this is how their tax dollars are being spent,” said Republican Rep. Marc Lombardo in a bipartisan press conference on Wednesday.

Democratic Rep. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut) called the site “a blatant agenda by the liberal part of our society to introduce children to sex and give them the opportunity to have an abortion without their parents’ involvement.”

The Department of Public Health, however, defended the site, saying that it helped “ensure that medically accurate health information continues to be available and accessible to individuals across the Commonwealth.”

The site, which also provides extremely explicit details on oral sex technique and other similar matters, discourages raising a child or giving it up for adoption should an unmarried teen become pregnant. One of the external sites endorsed by the project as providing “accurate, non-biased information on pregnancy options,” PregnancyOptions.info, is heavily pro-abortion.

“Ok, I totally know that this information can sound pretty intimidating and overwhelming, but I promise you the reality of getting an abortion is much easier than it sounds here,” states the site’s mascot, “Maria.” Massachusetts law requires that at least one parent consent to a minor’s abortion procedure.

The website directs teens to the local Planned Parenthood both directly and through other links.

While having a baby is described as “really stressful” and adoption “pretty tough for some people, especially emotionally,” the abortion section fails to mention even the possibility of physical or emotional side effects.