LYCEUM students are forced to watch anti-abortion documentaries and look at pamphlets containing graphic images of aborted embryos.
The documentary called Silent Scream and the Life or Death pamphlet are shown to students during religious instruction class, Politis newspaper reported yesterday. The Association of the Protection of Family and the Unborn Child is behind the initiative and the material is produced by Kykkos Monastery, the daily added.
The story came to light after a Nicosia Lyceum student complained her lessons smacked of “brainwashing”. The teenager added that when she asked to leave the room when the video was on, as it contained disturbing images, she was told to rest her head on her desk and to take a nap.
Senior Programme Officer and Sex Educator Despo Hadjiloizou yesterday told the Cyprus Mail: “I do not agree with the video or the pamphlets. They are not objective or realistic.”
Hadjiloizou said the documentary was incorrect as it claimed to depict a two-month old embryo, when in fact the embryo was four to five months old.
“Abortions do not take place at that stage, instead they take place very early in the pregnancy. (But) this film gives the wrong impression that the embryo feels and runs to safety.”
She added: “The film should talk about choice. Instead it’s one sided and makes the girl feel like a murderer, filling her with feelings of guilt and fear, when she should be trying to figure out what the right choice to make is.”
But, according to the specific school’s religious instruction teacher, “the goal is to inform students and not to cause guilt”. More importantly, he added, school inspectors were aware of the materials, but did not force teachers to use them.
Nevertheless the Education Ministry’s Educational Psychologists’ department knew nothing of the teaching materials. “I was not aware of the matter,” said Michalis Ioannou, who heads the department.
Bishop Neophytos of Morphou characterised the pamphlets as unacceptable and said the bloody photos were “a theology of terror”. He said only Alfred Hitchcock would use such macabre images and that they could not serve as preventative means.
“The circumstances a woman finds herself in to commit the sin of abortion are personal; the Church is also the mother of those women who have abortions”. This sort of pedagogy only led to a guilt-ridden relationship with the Church, the Bishop told Politis.
Hadjiloizou said young women should be taught sex education and counselled before and after their decision.
“Counselling is very important. Young people are not in a position to think rationally and should be informed of their choices,” she said.
Among others, choices could include: raising the child as an unmarried mother, marrying the father, terminating the pregnancy, raising the child as unmarried parents (mother and father involved in the upbringing without getting married) and putting the baby up for adoption.
Prevention, education and knowledge are the three factors schools should focus on, she said.
“Knowledge is power. Most importantly the focus in school should be on prevention. It is better to give the knowledge on how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies. This means contraception and responsible behaviour,” said Hadjiloizou.
She added: “This kind of teaching (the film and pamphlet) gives girls the wrong idea. The fact that it is taught in religious instruction only adds to the guilt, but doesn’t prevent them from having sex. Therefore responsible sex education will give them the knowledge to decide if and when they want to have sex. It will be a decision based on sound knowledge.”
