STAND. COM. REP. NO. 436

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 777

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 777 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY HEALTH EDUCATION,"

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 human immunodeficiency virus.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one state agency, nine organizations, and two individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one state agency, two organizations, and one individual.

     Copies of written testimony are available for review on the Legislature's website.

     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, your Committee finds that empowering teenagers to make informed decisions is the most effective safeguard to the contraction of often life threatening sexually transmitted diseases.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

     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. 777, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 777, 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