Womenstake

Abstinence-only advocates: “We are rubber, you are glue”

by Paige Herwig

The past several months haven’t been kind to proponents of abstinence-only education. First, an independent, nonpartisan policy organization released a report which found that abstinence-only education programs had no impact whatsoever on teen sexual behavior (incidentally, that report – by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. – was commissioned by the federal government). Then the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was put on notice by several nonprofit organizations that many federally-funded abstinence-only programs are in violation of a federal law that requires accurate information about condom effectiveness.  Finally, the ACLU called attention to the fact that taxpayer dollars in Oregon are being (mis)used to pay for abstinence-only programs that promote a specific religion (which is a constitutional no-no).

You might think that in the face of mounting evidence that abstinence-only education is ineffective at best, and promotes harmful misinformation at worst, our elected representatives would reconsider whether federal funding for such programs (to the tune of almost $1 billion since 1996) is actually a good idea. Instead, politicians who are abstinence-only advocates tried to discredit comprehensive sex education programs – which provide medically accurate, age-appropriate information about contraception and abstinence – by issuing a report of their own last week claiming that a small number of comprehensive programs contained scientific inaccuracies.

Is This What Compassion Looks Like?

by Paige Herwig

If there was anyone left in America who still believed that President Bush was a “compassionate conservative”, his letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid  – where the President threatened to veto any measures supporting women’s abilities to make their own reproductive health decisions – made it clear that his definition of “compassion” is pretty astonishing.  Specifically, President Bush cautioned that he would “veto any legislation that weakens current Federal policies and laws on abortion.”  Let’s take a moment to review some of those “compassionate” federal laws and policies on abortion, shall we?