STAND. COM. REP. NO. 806

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1117

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1117 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to ensure that teenagers are equipped with accurate information and knowledge to enable them to make informed decisions regarding their sexual health.

     This measure accomplishes this purpose by requiring all entities that receive state funding for sexual health education purposes to provide medically accurate, factual information that is age-appropriate and that includes education on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; the ACLU; Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai‘i; Planned Parenthood of Hawaii; the League of Women Voters of Hawaii; the Community Alliance on Prisons; the American Association of University Women; the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i; Hawaii Youth Services Network; and four individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Pro-Family Hawaii, Hawaii Right to Life, the Mary Jane Program of Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, Hawaii Family Forum, the Try Wait! Program of Catholic Charities Hawaii, and five individuals.  The Department of the Attorney General submitted comments on this measure.

     Your Committee finds that providing teenagers with medically accurate, factual information that is age-appropriate and that includes education on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, will reduce the number of unintended teenage pregnancies in Hawaii.  In addition, empowering teenagers to make informed decisions is the most effective safeguard to the contraction of often life threatening sexually transmitted diseases.

     Your Committee further finds that this measure is not intended to negatively impact those entities that receive state funding for non-sexual education programs.

     Accordingly, your Committee amended this measure by clarifying that it only applies to entities that receive state funding for sexual health education.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1117, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1117, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair