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Labour ‘cave in’ on Catholic sex education: Minister’s bid to exempt faith schools from sexual health policy enrages Liberal Democrats (Paul Hutcheon, 1/16/05, Sunday Herald)

LABOUR ministers are preparing to cave in to the Catholic Church by exempting faith schools from parts of the Scottish Executive’s sexual health strategy, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Under plans being drawn up by health minister Andy Kerr, pupils in Catholic schools will not have the same level of access to services and advice available to children in the integrated sector.

Critics say the measure will result in a two-tier system that bases access to contraception, abortion and information on relationships on the religious ethos of schools rather than on the needs of the child.

The move is being resisted by Jack McConnell’s LibDem coalition partners, and is delaying the publication of a policy that has been promised for five years.

The latest row was caused when a new draft of the strategy was circulated among ministers, watering down a commitment to provide the same level of sexual health services to pupils in all of Scotland’s schools.

Liberal Democrats, who had been satisfied with an earlier draft , said the change was unacceptable.

One source told the Sunday Herald: “The language is now so vague that it has become ambiguous and unacceptable. The document has been amended to provide Catholic schools with a number of loopholes.”

Those loopholes used to be called religious freedom, though in a nation that considers access to abortion a "need of a child" there's probably no place left for religion.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 15, 2005 10:11 PM