A Maryland bill aiming to repeal a ban on contraception sales in public school vending machines has sparked heated debate, with some lawmakers warning it could lead to condom dispensers in elementary and preschool settings.
“It makes no sense whatsoever,” said Maryland state Del. Kathy Szeliga Wednesday on “America Reports.” “You’re discriminating against traditional families that don’t want their 14-year-old daughter going to a high school and walking down the hall in front of a sex vending machine.”
The Maryland House of Delegates voted to advance legislation that would eliminate criminal penalties for selling contraception, including condoms and birth control, through vending machines in public schools. Under the current law, violators face a $1,000 fine.
Szeliga and other critics pushed for amendments to limit condom vending machines to high schools, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
“We offered an amendment on the bill… to just say look, just high schools,” Szeliga, a Republican, said. “But they rejected it.”
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Supporters of the bill insist that the legislation is not about requiring schools to install condom vending machines but instead removing outdated criminal penalties.
Democratic Maryland state Del. Nicole Williams defended the bill during a recent state general assembly session.
“It’s not dictating what school systems should and shouldn’t do,” Williams said. “It’s not mandating anybody to do anything or suggesting that they should do something. It’s just removing a criminal penalty. The sky is not going to fall if we pass this bill.”
Following the bill’s advancement, Szeliga posted on X, formerly Twitter, to express her outrage.
“MD lawmakers have officially lost their minds. Condom vending machines in SCHOOLS—from preschools to high schools? Yes, you read that right. Thanks to HB 380, the ‘Condoms for Kiddies’ bill, your child’s elementary school could soon have a colorful condom machine in the hallway and middle schools will be a one-stop shop for birth control. What’s next, hormone therapy at recess? This is ideology over common sense. Parents, wake up!”
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Szeliga warned that this legislation could open the door for broader contraceptive access in schools.
“They’re playing chess,” she said. “First, we remove the penalties so we can get the vending machine in the high school and other schools as well, and then next year they’re going to come back, and they’re going to put birth control pills, Plan B, condoms.”
Sex education policies in schools have been a political issue nationwide. In Chicago, public schools faced backlash after it was reported they introduced lessons on sexual education and gender identity as early as kindergarten and first grade.
Szeliga, a grandmother of two girls, said she fears this bill could expose children to mature topics too soon.
“Putting this in a daycare or nursery school,” she said. “I am a grandmother of two beautiful 10- and 7-year-old girls and I can’t imagine them walking down the hall and seeing a colorful condom vending machine.”
She also questioned how parents would navigate such conversations at a young age.
“With condoms and other things in it, and then having to have a conversation with a 7-year-old,” she said. “You know, ‘Mama, what’s a condom? What’s in that machine?’”
The bill now moves to the state Senate for consideration.
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