RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina lawmakers have tentatively approved expanding a parent’s choice for their child’s sex education curriculum, including a change that would likely increase the number of seventh- through ninth-graders who get no sex education.

The House voted 64-53 on Tuesday to expand beyond the abstinence-until-marriage curriculum that has been the sole track since the mid-1990s. A final House vote could come Thursday.

The bill would let parents choose whether their children studied the existing curriculum, one that also discussed contraception, or skipped sex education altogether.

Social conservatives objected that marriage is devalued if children were taught about contraception they could use if they are sexually active.