Nebraska Governor's Censorship Endangers Nebraskans' Lives

Violet Blue calls our attention to how Nebraska's Republican governor Dave Heineman is putting his constituents' lives in jeopardy by silencing the Nebraska state health agency on matters of sexual health.

JoAnne Young of the Lincoln Journal Star reports that Heineman has muzzled the state Health and Human Services System, prohibiting it from using the words "sex" or "sexual," or including any "controversial content" in any public communication. All contraception is controversial, apparently. So is any mention that sexually-transmitted diseases are transmitted sexually. Apparently, unlucky Nebraskans are touched by the magic wand of the Chlamydia Fairy, at least insofar as the HHSS is able to communicate about the transmission of chlamydia.

Blue quotes from an email she received from a Nebraska Planned Parenthood worker:

My job as an sex educator is solely prevention and information. EVERY SINGLE DAY I talk to teens who are hurt physically and emotionally by the withholding of vital sexual health information. I have kids cry in my office because their parents, teachers, or other caregivers NEVER talked to them honestly about sex or healthy relationships. By the time one student made it to my office, she had two pregnancies, one of which was terminated because her much older boyfriend threw her down the stairs at 7 months pregnant. The other, a miscarriage at the age of 13...too afraid to tell anyone she bled profusely by herself. The mentor who brought her into my office later reported to me that she actually jumped up and down because she finally, FINALLY, had the sex talk with someone. This information served a good purpose, but how would her life been different if it had occurred years earlier????

Gov. Heineman asserts that his policy is motivated by his "pro-life" values. He asserts that Nebraska is a "pro-life state." His policy, however, jeopardizing citizen's lives by withholding from them information about life-and-death matters of public health, is more accurately described as "pro-death."