Wednesday, July 27, 2022

A message from Tom Royer
President/CEO

On July 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that, for nearly 50 years, had guaranteed women the right to an abortion.

I’m not going to get into my opinion on this issue specifically, although you can probably guess where I stand. I do, however, want to get into practical, downstream matters and what this means for the families Beech Brook serves.

Let’s start on common ground. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, I think you would agree that we would all like to see the number of abortions in this country go down.

But this is setting women and families up for failure.

There is significant overlap between those who would like to ban abortion and those who are, at the same time, against teaching comprehensive sexual education in schools.

There are 26 states that have or will ban or put severe restrictions on abortion, according to a 2021 analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonpartisan reproductive health research group. Of these 26 states, 13 have no requirement to teach sex education and only four require youth to be taught about contraception.

Ohio is one of the states that has put severe and unrealistic restrictions on the procedure. Ohio is also the only state in the country that does not have ANY requirements for any health education, including comprehensive sex education. And the sexual education that youth in Ohio receive depends on the school district they are in. Maybe you get comprehensive and medically accurate sex education, but maybe you get abstinence-only which relies on personal responsibility without providing much actual information.

This plan is reckless. I would actually feel better if there were no plan at all.

I recently wrote an article regarding funding in Ohio for comprehensive sex education. It is in jeopardy. This year, the Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council made the decision to defund the comprehensive sex education program across Cuyahoga County. Fortunately, through the diligent work of the Collaborative for Comprehensive School Age Health, this decision was reversed. But it does not mean that funding is secure in the future.

So, who is impacted? You know the answer. It’s the same group of people who are always impacted by these kinds of decisions. The poor. Minority groups. Women and, ultimately, children.

You see, in Ohio, the resourced folks will simply drive to another state where abortion is legal. The under-resourced folks, well, I guess they will have an illegal abortion, or they will have a baby they are not ready for.

According to Forbes, “In 2020, 12% of American households surveyed by the Federal Reserve said they would be unable to pay a $400 emergency expense 'by any means.' Another 35% of households would have difficulty covering the expense, meaning they might have to borrow money, sell something, take out a loan or pay it off on a credit card over time.”

Many people simply can’t afford to go to another state.

A well-known study on the issue of abortion, the Turnaway Study, found that women who were denied an abortion suffered worse mental health and had worse financial outcomes when compared to women with access.

And these impacts trickle down to kids. One common reason for getting an abortion is to maintain the ability to care for children already in the family. When women are forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, the existing children are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to achieve developmental milestones.

Ohio’s “plan” cannot stand. The downstream effects are too important to the people who are impacted. The least we can do now that Roe has been overturned is to educate our youth with medically accurate information so they have tools to prevent unwanted pregnancy. According to the National Institute of Health, abstinence-only education does not reduce, and likely increases, teen pregnancy rates. We also know through numerous studies that comprehensive sex education delays the initiation of sex, reduces the incidents of sexually transmitted diseases, reduces domestic partner violence, and increases the possibility of healthy relationships.

The State of Ohio needs a better plan. The State wants to reduce abortions while relying on personal responsibility. Ironically, the current plan is just plain irresponsible.

Beech Brook is here to help!

Beech Brook's Comprehensive Sex Education program teaches the youth in our community about critical topics like consent, body safety, STDs, contraception, pregnancy, and more. Make a donation to Beech Brook to help us continue to provide this vital service!