The hottest controversy at the grassroots today is the well-financed push to place contraceptive-dispensing sex clinics in public schools. Public opposition is building rapidly. The front line in this battle is Chicago, where a clinic at DuSable High School is already in operation. The American Family Defense Coalition, an ad hoc grassroots organization opposing the school sex clinics, presented a list of questions to the Chicago Board of Education which illustrate the deep-seated problems the clinics pose.
What literature, statistics, and other resource information were reviewed to determine the need for school-based clinics in Chicago? What national, state, or local conferences did Chicago Board members attend on school-based clinics? If none, then who determined that Chicago needs school-based clinics?
What specific health needs were unmet at the Chicago public schools? Please give the number and percentage for each school. What is the live birth rate for Chicago high school students and for each school targeted?
What are the medical services available in and around each targeted school (hospitals, free clinics, public health departments, etc.)?
Who developed the psychosocial evaluation? What other questionnaires are given to the students? Please send copies.
How many cases of AIDS, chlamydia, and other venereal diseases have been discovered among Chicago high school students, and in which schools have they occurred? Please state the source of statistics.
Why are students targeted whose parents receive support from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and how many recipients are there in each high school? Please give the source of statistics.
Is the greatest unmet need of adolescents birth control or support to say “no” to sex? Is there an extensive program teaching children to say “no” to premarital sex?
Have the concerns about parental consent been resolved? If so, how? Can parents give informed consent when minor children will be receiving confidential medical treatment? Will minor children be referred to hospitals or other clinics during school time? If so, will parents be contacted? Who is responsible for knowing that the signature on the parental consent form is genuine?
What guarantee will be given to parents who don’t want their children to use school-based clinics to obtain birth control pills when Illinois law allows minors to obtain birth control without parental consent?
Have the concerns of liability been resolved? If so, how? If lawsuits occur because of damage to health and the reproductive systems by the pill and continued promiscuity, will the Board assume this liability?
If a virgin contracts venereal disease because he or she felt safe to have sex after receiving birth control, will the Board assume responsibility for this? If a high school girl becomes pregnant due to failed birth control, will the Board provide and care for the teen’s child?
Will birth control prescriptions be presigned by an attending physician and then issued by the nurse practitioner? Who will assume responsibility for the deadly disease of AIDS if contracted by a student while using birth control obtained from the clinic?
We respectfully request copies of all letters to and from all organizations involved in setting up the Chicago school-based birth control clinics; minutes of meetings to study school clinics which were held on school property or any other public location; minutes, agenda and logs of telephone calls made on the subject of birth control clinics in the schools.
In addition, we request information on all meetings with insurance companies, brokers, agencies or lawyers with respect to liabilities which could be incurred by the Board, school employees, and other providers of the clinic, and an estimated amount of coverage required. We request logs of discussions, meetings, correspondence and telephone calls pertaining to seeking funding from Planned Parenthood, Parents Too Soon, Ounce of Prevention, and any other private agency or individual.
The American Family Defense Coalition requests all correspondence to and from appointed or elected federal, state, county, city officials or government agencies concerning the school-based birth control clinics. The Coalition also requests all correspondence pertaining to legal opinions as to the liability of school officials for criminal charges under the statutory rape laws because of handing out contraceptives to minor females.
All taxpayers, especially parents, are entitled to have the answers to these questions about what goes on in public schools.
