HELENA (AP) -- Montana's schoolchildren need to learn about contraception and sexually transmitted diseases -- not just abstinence -- in sex education classes, advocates of a bill to expand such offerings said Wednesday.

Rep. Teresa Henry, D-Missoula, is proposing a measure to make comprehensive sex education programs available throughout the state.

Her bill would provide more than $500,000 in state grants to city, county and tribal health departments each year for such programs. The courses would have to include instruction about abstinence, contraception, STDs, drug and alcohol use and other issues and could not teach or promote religion.

The programs must also be "age-appropriate" and would have to promote self-esteem, nonviolent dating relationships and "healthy attitudes" about body image, sexual orientation and other subjects.

Classes currently offered by Montana schools aren't cutting it, Henry and other supporters told the House Human Services Committee.

"If 42 percent of teens in Montana are already sexually active, how does an abstinence-only program help?" said Carey Eggen, a teen from Billings.

Other teens told lawmakers they're learning about sex from their friends, not from their parents or from school, and argued teaching them more about it may help prevent unwanted teen pregnancies and STDs.

"My 15-year-old boy doesn't want to hear this kind of information from his mother," said Georgia Lovelady, a Helena parent.

Opponents said sex education courses should be developed at the local level, not the state, and questioned including sexual orientation in such programs.

"The bottom line is parents should have as much control as possible over the upbringing and education of their children," said Rachel Roberts of the Montana Family Foundation. "Programs like the one proposed ultimately work to undermine parental control."

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.

In 2001, lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to require that schools promote abstinence until marriage in their sex education courses.

On Friday, Henry will introduce a bill that would allow nurses at family planning clinics under contract with the state Health Department to dispense contraceptives.

The bill is House Bill 612.