Government health officials in Minnesota testified last Monday that rates of sexually
transmitted diseases are increasing, particularly among urban women,
and that a proposed bill to increase funding for testing, treatment and
education might stem the steady rise in rates and curb teen pregnancy.

The bill was heard by the Health, Housing and Family Security Committee, where it passed by a voice vote on Monday.

Senate File 273
includes the Comprehensive Family Life and Sexuality Education language
that almost made it to Gov. Tim Pawlenty last year. That bill would
have mandated a baseline for sex education in Minnesota’s public
schools. As part of last year’s negotiations, Pawlenty told legislators
they’d need to hash out the details of the bill with the conservative Minnesota Family Council. Needless to say, the bill was withdrawn during conference committee.

This year’s version, coauthored by DFL Sens. John Marty (Roseville)
and Sandy Rummel (White Bear Lake), has similar provisions, but
contains an addition: funds for testing and treatment for chlamydia and
gonorrhea in the form of family planning special project grants similar
to those Pawlenty proposes to cut from the state budget.

David Johnson, epidemiologist for the Minneapolis Department of
Health and Family Support, said the city’s chlamydia rate is three
times higher than elsewhere in Minnesota. If left unchecked, chlamydia
can wreak havoc on a woman’s reproductive organs, and infection of a
newborn infant through childbirth can lead to blindness.

Because some communities are seeing such high rates, aggressive
action in needed, Johnson said. “The amount of disease in the
community, the rate is so high that it is virtually sustaining,” he
said. “In these communities, we need targeted screening in order to
bring rates down.”

Peter Carr, who heads the STD and HIV Program at the Minnesota
Department of Health, said the under-served communities need the most
targeting. “One of the defining characteristics of STDs in Minnesota is
the disparities in communities of color. They have rates 45 times
higher than for whites.”

The funding in the bill is aimed to target extra resources to those
communities that are most impacted by high STD rates. But that doesn’t
mean suburbs are a safe haven.

Said Kathy Wick of the Dakota County Public Health Department, “I am
here to dispel any myths that living in the suburbs protects you from
STDs.”

Wick argues for increased education in those areas. “It’s not for
lack of health resources, money or insurance that we have an STD
problem in Dakota County,” she said. “It’s a lack of knowledge.”

Experts testified that the current sex education programs in schools
are a patchwork, with schools dedicating differing amounts of time to
the topic and  it from an abstinence-until-marriage model — a model
that numerous studies has shown to be ineffective.

Advocates for the bill say that educating young people now will save
the state money later. Deb Wilkens-Costello of St. Paul’s Family Tree
Clinic predicts that Minnesota will find benefits from a consistent sex
ed curriculum that reduces teenage pregnancy.

“The state would feel an immediate impact to Medicare and welfare
costs for years to come,” she said. “The state spends $120 million per
year for teenage births.”

With a huge budget deficit and a governor with close religious right
ties, Sen. John Marty said the bill likely won’t pass. But still he is
hopeful.

“We can’t afford not to make the expenditure.”