04/24/1996 09:02 AM Senate HES

       HCR 27 am TEEN PREGNANCY EDUCATION:SUGAR BABY                       
                                                                               
 CHAIRMAN GREEN introduced HCR 27 am as the next order of business.            
                                                                               
 REPRESENTATIVE CON BUNDE, prime sponsor of HCR 27, explained the              
 essence of the program is that the young people who take part in it           
 have to pack around a 10-pound package of sugar for a week and                
 treat as if it were a live baby.  After a week of constant care of            
 the "sugar baby," it dawns on these seventh and eighth graders that           
 packing around a 10-pound bag of sugar is a real pain, but packing            
 around a 10-pound human being for several years would be a far                
 greater challenge.  He said it has worked to encourage young people           
 to think about the responsibility that they take on when they                 
 become pregnant as teenagers.                                                 
                                                                               
 Representative Bunde believes young people have to be far more                
 aware of the consequences of their behavior, and the ultimate goal            
 is to encourage abstinence because that is the only 100 percent               
 guarantee of preventing pregnancy.                                            
                                                                               
 Representative Bunde pointed out that when he was growing up and              
 was a teenager, the notion of a teenage pregnancy was scandalous.             
 There was a great public condemnation of teen pregnancy; it was               
 socially unacceptable, so there was a push not to get pregnant for            
 a lot of reasons.  He said many of those pressures have gone away,            
 and this project is an attempt to put more pressure back on the               
 teenagers, not from a condemnation point of view, but just from the           
 practical realities of what it must be like to have to care for an            
 infant day in and day out.                                                    
                                                                               
 Number 116                                                                    
                                                                               
 CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if this curriculum was developed at Mears                
 Junior High School in Anchorage.  REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE responded              
 that it was not; it is a program that has been around for a long              
 time and Mears simply adopted it.                                             
 Number 140                                                                    
                                                                               
 There being no further testimony on HCR 27, CHAIRMAN GREEN asked              
 for the pleasure of the committee.                                            
                                                                               
 SENATOR LEMAN moved HCR 27 am be passed out of committee with                 
 individual recommendations.  Hearing no objection, it was so                  
 ordered.