Assembly OKs Bill Requiring the Teaching of Sex Abstinence

Facing election-year pressure to address issues of moral conduct, the Assembly passed legislation Thursday that would require sex education teachers to instruct their students to abstain from sexual intercourse “until they are ready for marriage.”

At the same time, fundamentalist religious activists suffered a setback in the Senate when President Pro Tem David A. Roberti sidetracked a separate measure that would give local communities more power to crack down on pornography. The Los Angeles Democrat charged that the bill would “chill free expression” of authors, artists and movie producers.

The two bills dealing with sex and pornography represent an effort by Republicans and conservative Democrats to implement their moral agenda and shape the issues that will be debated in the November legislative elections.

In the Assembly, where all 80 seats are up for election, the abstinence measure passed on a bipartisan vote of 47 to 21. In prescribing sex education teachings, the bill also would require that instructors teach their students to “honor and respect” the institution of monogamous, heterosexual marriage.

Stage Set for Battle

But in the Senate, where only half the 40 seats are subject to election this year, Roberti attempted to put the brakes on the pornography measure, setting the stage for a continuing battle over the sensitive issue of curbing pornography at the expense of freedom of expression.

The two bills were among hundreds of measures considered by the Assembly and Senate as they approach the Aug. 31 deadline for adjournment. Members of both houses sought to clear their desks of as many bills as possible before they take a weeklong recess during the Republican National Convention.

In other actions:

- The Assembly passed a bill by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) that would double the maximum fine, from $250 to $500, for violating the laws that govern freeway car pool lanes, including crossing illegally into a high-occupancy vehicle lane or traveling with fewer than the required number of passengers. The measure, approved by a vote of 45 to 15, goes back to the Senate for approval of minor amendments.

- The Senate passed a bill by Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) that would ban the manufacture, sale or possession in California of plastic guns that cannot be detected by metal screening or X-ray devices commonly used at airports. Approved by a vote of 23 to 0, the bill was returned to the Assembly for final approval.

- The Senate passed a bill by Assemblyman Tom Bates (D-Oakland) that would require farmers to raise veal cattle in enclosures that do not severely restrict the animals’ movement. Approved by a vote of 24 to 6 and sent back to the Assembly for final approval, the measure was designed to abolish the current system of raising calves that animal activists charge is cruel and inhumane.

- By a vote of 21 to 15, the Senate passed a bill declaring the banana slug to be the official state mollusk. The bill by Assemblyman Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto) now goes to Gov. George Deukmejian for his signature.

The sex education bill, sponsored by Sen. Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale), would require teachers to stress that abstinence from sexual intercourse is the only 100% effective protection against unwanted pregnancies, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The measure also would require discussion with students of the possible emotional and psychological consequences of unwanted pregnancies and adolescent sexual intercourse outside of marriage. In addition, teachers would be required to instruct students against making unwarranted physical and verbal sexual advances, and how to refuse such unwanted advances.

Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge), who carried the legislation on the lower-house floor, insisted that it was necessary to help fight the AIDS epidemic.

“We should do everything in our power to educate our young people to be prepared to protect themselves and help us to curtail the spread of this epidemic,” she said.

Opponents of the bill argued that the Legislature should not attempt to impose certain moral views on the public.

“This bill represents one particular group’s view of morality,” said Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Tarzana), who voted against the bill. “We need to teach our young people how to save their lives. That’s what’s at stake here--not private morality.”

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) charged that the proposed law would be “ineffective” and “laughed at” by students. Hayden did not vote on the bill.

Del Weber, a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn., said the bill could undermine the authority that individual communities already have over sex education.

“Our position is parents and teachers in each individual community should set up the curriculum in family life and sex education classes to meet the needs of the students in each community,” he said. “This bill would weaken that local control.”

Thirty-four Republicans and 13 Democrats voted yes on the bill; 21 Democrats voted no. The measure now goes back to the Senate for concurrence in Assembly changes. The upper house previously approved a similar version of the bill by a 27-4 margin.

Roberti’s action to send the pornography measure back to the Rules Committee came as the bill’s advocates said they had the 21 votes needed for passage. The Senate leader’s move, which did not require a Senate vote, means the committee will decide whether to bottle up the bill, modify it or refer it to another committee.

Ultra-conservative Sen. H.L. Richardson (R-Glendora), a backer of the legislation, said he will mobilize fundamentalist religious groups throughout the state to pressure members of the committee to approve the legislation.

The bill, authored by Sen. Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Chula Vista), would allow individual communities to set their own standards of what constitutes obscenity, rather then follow the prevailing statewide standard.

Supporters of the legislation say it would make it easier for prosecutors to convict pornographers in communities that set stricter standards.

But Roberti and other opponents of the measure contend that allowing each community to set its own standard would lead to uneven enforcement of pornography laws and inhibit the production of movies, books and art.

“I like the bill but with a statewide standard so you don’t put publishers, movie producers and broadcasters in the position of having to tailor every literary or artistic effort to innumerable communities in California,” the Senate leader said. “The net effect of that is to chill free expression and render it impractical for people to publish or to produce works of art.”

Among those opposing the measure are the Motion Picture Assn. of America, the California Broadcasters Assn., the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., the California Library Assn. and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The bill has broad support among religious groups. More than 4,000 backers of the bill demonstrated on the Capitol steps last week as the Assembly approved the measure by a vote of 57 to 11.

Richardson said supporters will now focus their lobbying efforts on Sen. Henry J. Mello (D-Watsonville), considered the key vote on the five-member Rules Committee. Richardson said he will rely on his computerized mailing lists and a network of religious groups to begin a letter-writing campaign aimed at Mello.

“The moral movement in the state of California, much of it emanating from the Christian churches, have been developing far more sophisticated knowledge of the legislative process and how to contact their legislators,” he said.

Mello said he supported the bill in an earlier version when it relied on a statewide standard of obscenity, but he has taken no position on the amended version.