Cranford, NJ—American Atheists today sent a letter to the Wooster City School District in Wooster, Ohio, following a complaint from a parent alleging that the school is allowing representatives from a religiously affiliated pregnancy center to give students inaccurate and religiously motivated instruction about matters related to sexual health.
According to the complaint, staff from the Pregnancy Care Center of Wayne County – a faith-based facility that does not offer any information about emergency contraception or abortion services, nor provide screenings for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or information about STD prevention – told students that marriage prevents STDs and that adoption is the only option for students who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest.
“Parents should expect schools to provide students with factual information about every subject,” said Amanda Knief, American Atheists National Legal and Public Policy Director. “To see that students have been lied to about their options if they are sexually assaulted and lied to about how to protect themselves from STDs is appalling. Without providing accurate information, the school is putting students’ lives at risk.”
In the letter, American Atheists demands that the district provide equal time to a non-religiously affiliated health center to provide accurate information to the students who received the inaccurate and religiously motivated information regarding sexual health and to cease allowing the Pregnancy Care Center of Wayne County to present its false and religiously motivated program to students.
