SALT LAKE CITY-- Utah's sex education policies in public schools will be staying right where they are.
Monday morning was supposed to provide a vigorous debate about broadening the state's sex ed programs beyond its heavy abstinence curriculum. Senate Bill 54 would have allowed contraceptives to be discussed more broadly than is currently allowed, for example.
Sponsor Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, had the votes Saturday to get the bill passed in the Senate Education Committee but was stunned Monday when no support could be found -- even for a watered-down substitution of his original bill.
No one on the committee would pass a motion to accept the substitute -- a procedural move longtime lawmakers said they have never seen -- so Urquhart's sex ed reform effort is done for the year.
"It's just the word 'contraceptives,' " Urquhart said of why his bill died. "I'm not willing to take that out of a bill that deals with contraceptives."
The bill was opposed by such conservative groups as the Utah Eagle Forum, whose members called senators on the committee over the weekend.
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