PRO-LIFE GROUPS in the US are up in arms about a state-funded website which advises teens that abortion is a “pretty hot topic” and “much easier than it sounds”.
Mariatalks.com is a state-funded sex education site which features a fictional teenager called “Maria” who give out advice. The site is produced by the AIDS Action Committee and receives $100,000 a year from the Massachusets Department of Public Health.

Pro-life lobby Massachusets Citizens for Life is calling for the site to be rewritten, claiming that it pushes abortion on teens. Spokesperson Linda Thayer claims that the site is “using taxpayer money to tell kids how to get a secret abortion, and that’s wrong”. She says the site is guilty of “deception by omission” for stating that an abortion is “when the contents of the womb are removed”. She told Fox News that mariatalks.com is a “road map” for a minor girl on “how to get an abortion without telling her parents”.

Massachusets state law says that children under 18 must obtain parental permission before seeking an abortion, but mariatalks.com advises that a minor can waive the need for parental permission through a confidential judicial hearing.

The AIDS Action Committee has defended the website, saying:

We feel that the issues that are addressed through the Maria Talks website are essential in safeguarding the general, sexual health of youth by informing them of their risk for unintended pregnancies, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.