Location: Ford Auditorium, Allen Memorial Medical Library, 11000 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106
In her talk, Iris Harvey, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Board Member of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, will demonstrate that public policy regarding how sex education is taught in our schools is driven more by the desire to promote conservative values rather than making evidence-based decisions. Sex education in Ohio, and in many other states, is based on abstinence-only-until marriage beliefs. Such instruction largely excludes sexual and reproductive health topics such as birth control and safe sex, relationship development and consent, gender identity, body image, and prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Lawmakers in statehouses and city halls are the ones making decisions about what is (and is not) taught in school-based sex education. Nationally only 13 states require classroom sex education to be factual and medically accurate.
This Cleveland Humanities Festival event is hosted by the Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum and is the 2018 Percy Skuy Annual Lecture. It is co-sponsored by the Schubert Center for Child Studies.