On Tuesday, September 16, Massachusetts Citizens for Life President Myrna Maloney Flynn testified before the Joint Committee on Public Education at the State House regarding House Bill 656 and Senate Bill 340.

During the hearing, Flynn called for public school sex education to include fetal development, a subject currently absent from proposed comprehensive reproductive health instruction.

"My child’s school district dedicates a whole semester to sex ed covering masturbation, STDs, sexual orientation, abortion, and contraception," Flynn said. "It seems to me that the state should also require at least one lesson on fetal development."

Flynn offered to provide every public school in Massachusetts with resources to ensure students receive medically accurate and unbiased information on prenatal life. These resources include pocket-sized fetal development booklets, designed by a pediatrician and Rhodes Scholar in collaboration with a veteran public school educator, and lifelike fetal model sets representing 12 to 26 weeks of gestation. MCFL will fully fund these materials.

She urged lawmakers to amend S340 to require prenatal development as part of the physical education framework. "We want to help educate our students, and we are more than happy to pay for classroom resources that cover the biology of fetal development," Flynn said.

Flynn concluded her testimony by offering free copies of the fetal development booklet to committee members and attendees.

Reported by Juan Perfetti.