(Newser)
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Utah's legislature has passed a bill allowing schools to drop their sex education programs and forbidding any instruction on the use of contraception. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday in a 19-10 vote, the Salt Lake City Tribune reports. Some Democrats spoke up against the bill and asked questions about it, but its sponsor refused to answer. "I think everybody basically knows where they are on this issue," she said.
"To replace the parent in the school setting, among people who we have no idea what their morals are … I think is wrongheaded," said one Republican supporting the bill. But one Democrat attacked it as "a mandate against reality," while another pointed out that not every child has "parents who are ready to have a conversation about appropriate sexual activity." The legislature also rejected an amendment that would have explicitly allowed teachers to speak positively about homosexuality.
