Cartoon query

Press, 17 June 1980, Page 29

Cartoon query

The Christchurch branch of the Abortion Law Reform Association has sought a statement from the Minister of Education, (Mr Wellington) on the controversial anti-abortion cartoon distribution recently in some Auckland secondary schools by the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. The branch has asked Mr Wellington if permission was given by education authorities for the S.P.U.C. pamphlet to be distributed, and whether its distribution was sanctioned by the review panel on human relationships and development programmes for secondary shcools. S.P.U.C. was a member of this review panel.

The association has told Mr Wellington that it sees an urgent need for com* prehensive balanced human relationships and sex education programmes in schools before children reach puberty. Properly written factual material was urgently needed for children to have the opportunity to reach reasonable and responsible decisions, the association said. “It is incomprehensible that the irresponsible and dishonest pamphlet from S.P.U.C. is being allowed into schools when clear, factual, non-emotional, award-winning books written specifically for teenagers are not even allowed into the country,” it said.