A great editorial from the DDN that highlights the reasons Ohio should pass legislation that promotes comprehensive sex education, access to contraception and other methods that reduce unwanted preganancies.

Stopping unwanted pregnancy should be a bipartisan goal, and yet the actions and inactions of state lawmakers go beyond failing to make progress against the problem. Legislators are actually making things worse.

First, the General Assembly required school districts to favor “abstinence-only” programs, a discredited approach that seeks only to persuade kids not to have sex until marriage. Districts that wanted to offer some frank talk — or share much practical information — about how to avoid pregnancy when sexually active found state law discouraging.

Compounding the problem, lawmakers blocked educators from establishing health education standards without legislative approval. The lawmakers were trying to assure that abstinence-only programs dominated.

Demonstrators came out to support a pro-choice advocate who was recently attacked by a group of anti-choice protestors outside of an Akron clinic.

The decades-long debate on abortion heated up on the streets of Akron Saturday, with demonstrators for and against setting up camp on separate sides of East Market Street in front of an abortion clinic.

The display is part of a national trend of increasing tension between the two sides since the May 31 slaying of George Tiller, a Kansas physician who performed late-term abortions.

On July 18, the two sides clashed outside the Akron Women’s Medical Group, 839 E. Market St., when Akron resident Charles Wright, an abortion supporter, suffered six broken ribs and a concussion during a skirmish.