A Catholic bishop has criticized a plan for classroom lessons on access to abortion, claiming that students could find the same information by searching Google.
The teaching of abortion access and early pregnancy prevention will be mandated for all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland.
Donal McKeown, the bishop of Derry, expressed his worry that failing to provide the lessons could result in schools being "criminalized.".
Schools want to provide education for students, not just information, he said.
He said, "If anyone wants to learn about abortion, get something called Google and type in abortion.".
Chris Heaton-Harris, the secretary for Northern Ireland, stated that he was required by law to change the guidelines for relationships and sex education in schools on Tuesday.
Based on recommendations from a United Nations report, he implemented the change in Parliament.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women's (CEDAW) Report recommended that sex education in Northern Ireland be both mandatory and comprehensive.
So far, Northern Ireland's individual schools have made their own decisions about how to teach sex education.
Schools must support students in acquiring "lifelong skills for healthy relationships," according to Bishop McKeown.
However, he continued, "I am really concerned that the secretary of state appears to be making this decision in order to impose a particular strategy on all schools.
Perhaps as a result of schools breaking the law, there will be consequences and criminal charges.
"I don't believe that you need to impose on schools, who come from a variety of different backgrounds, an obligation to provide information as if abortion and that entire area is somehow or other a value-free thing. ".
He claimed that Mr. Heaton-Harris should have communicated "with all parties in Northern Ireland, not just with CEDAW coming from New York" on the The North West Today program of BBC Radio Foyle.
According to him, the curriculum changes resulted from an "ideology that says: "This is about my rights," and there is no morality at stake.".
"This is a new ideology that demands that everything else be sacrificed in order to uphold human rights, which it claims to be the only way to do things. '".
The moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Dr. John Kirkpatrick, has also expressed his disapproval of the curriculum changes.
Mr. Heaton-Harris, according to him, was attempting to "impose a particular worldview on the education of children in Northern Ireland.".
But advocates for women's rights have praised the plans.
Children have "a right to some level of education," according to Elaine Crory of the Women's Resource and Development Agency.
That is equally true for RSE as it is for math, science, and English, she said.
"This curriculum's goal is to teach students about healthy relationships. It also teaches students about conflict and important concepts like consent, which many people are unaware of. ".
The new regulations were deemed a "positive step" by the NSPCC branch in Northern Ireland.
