(Photo: by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images) Packs of various condoms stand on a shelf of a CVS store in Washington, DC, on February 23, 2022. - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the first condom for use during anal intercourse, in what was hailed as a victory for sexual health by experts.
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, vetoed a bill on Sunday that would have provided free condoms to all public high school students, claiming it was too expensive for a state with a more than $30 billion budget deficit.
According to the California Department of Education, there were more than 4,000 high schools serving about 1.9 million high school students in California last year.
Before lawmakers adjourned last month, the Democratic-controlled state Legislature of California passed hundreds of bills.
Since then, Newsom has been signing and vetoing laws, including rejecting on Saturday legislation to outlaw caste-based discrimination, set a price cap on insulin, and decriminalize the use and possession of various hallucinogens, according to The Associated Press.
The law would have mandated that condoms be made freely available to all pupils in all public schools that offer grades nine through twelve. It would have mandated that condoms be made available as part of instructional or public health initiatives at public schools serving students in grades 7 through 12.
Additionally, refusing to sell condoms to minors would have been against the law for merchants.
The bill's author, Los Angeles-based state senator Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat, claimed it would have assisted "youth who decide to become sexually active to protect themselves and their partners from (sexually transmitted infections), while also removing barriers that potentially shame them and lead to unsafe sex."
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Costly and Unnecessary?
However, he claimed this bill was one of several measures lawmakers enacted this year that, when combined together, will add $19 billion in spending to the state budget.
Newsom said initiatives improving access to condoms are "important to supporting improved adolescent sexual health."
Conservative groups, such as the California Policy Council, expressed worry over the law, claiming that "handing out free condoms perpetuates" a hook-up culture in which "sex is meaningless and done for fun with multiple partners."
Since lawmakers passed the California Healthy Youth Act in 2016, which established comprehensive sexual education and HIV prevention instruction, the topic of sexual education in California schools has been controversial.
The revised curriculum included lessons on sex trafficking, HIV prevention nutrition, alcohol usage, and skin care, as well as gender-inclusive terminology and other comprehensive topics.
States in the U.S. each have their unique sex education policies and methods.
According to National Institutes of Health research, just 50% of adolescents will learn about contraception in school before they have their first sexual experience. Only 20 states mandate condom or contraceptive information.
A 2018 research on teen pregnancy prevention found that 18 states mandate classes encouraging students to have sex only after getting married, while 27 states have curricula that emphasize abstinence.
Related article: 'Out of Control' STD Cases Prompt Health Officials To Call for New Prevention, Treatment Efforts
