Dear Utah State Legislature concerning HB363

You should really just come clean and admit that at the heart of the matter you want to force your religious beliefs on others in public schools. This isn't about reducing teen pregnancies (because those are factually being reduced). This isn't about reducing teen pregnancies (because those are also being reduced). This is about you believing that sex outside of marriage is wrong. Plain and simple.

While some tenuous arguments could be made about the psychological and emotional harms that can result from immature teens have sex, it is telling that you in the Utah legislature aren't really concerned about that. This is about you believing that sex outside of marriage is sinful and you want to use the state to enforce ridiculous (and harmful) means to naively attempt to pressure teens to meet your religious ideals.

If you listen to your colleague defending this bill, you will hear the nut state representative repeatedly referring to premarital sex and sex outside of marriage (and rarely actually referring to just teens having sex). This legislation is not about protecting kids from harmful consequences from sex--it's about protecting them from sex. It's not about ensuring their health--it's about ensuring their salvation.

While these latter things may be admirable. They are the duties of parents and churches, not public schools.