Results tagged “abstinence-only programs” from Blog for Choice

I just saw this video and you have got to check it out!

Seriously? "When you use a condom, it's like you're playing Russian roulette?" If you want to have sex before marriage you "have to be prepared to die, and you'll probably take with you your spouse and one or more of your children?!" Wow... Those are some outlandish statements!

The video is from an "abstinence-only" program. These ideologically-driven programs teach teens about abstinence but withhold life-saving information about birth control, or lie about birth control's effectiveness. Thanks to former President Bush and his friends, students are being told these lies in public schools, and taxpayers are paying for it!

Fortunately, with a pro-choice president and pro-choice leadership in Congress, funding for "abstinence-only" programs has been going the way of the dodo. Of course, anti-choice members of Congress are trying to reinstate funding for "abstinence-only" programs into the health-care reform bill, and no doubt they'll try this in other bills, too.

This is where you come in: There's already a bill in Congress called The REAL Act, which would get age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education into our classrooms. In other words, it will give students all the information they need to make the best decisions for themselves. Tell your member of Congress to support the REAL Act.

October is Sex Education Action month, and there are only a few days left, so take action now!

I wrote a news round up for a different audience today, but since it was a good re-cap of the week's events, I thought I'd repurpose it for the blog. I hope you enjoy!

North Dakota's "Personhood" Decision: Late last week, mere hours after we sent out the Liberty Lowdown, the North Dakota state Senate, anti-choice majority and all, rejected a dangerous so-called "personhood" bill that would have outlawed abortion and could have led to bans on birth control, stem-cell research, and in-vitro fertilization.

• Fighting this dangerous bill was a top priority for NARAL Pro-Choice America:
  We contacted our members in North Dakota with email alerts and volunteer phone banks that reached 542 supporters in the state.
• In addition, nearly 20,000 national activists sent messages to North Dakota's anti-choice Gov. John Hoeven, urging him to veto any abortion-ban legislation that reaches his desk.

Thanks for all your help in making this happen.

Pro-Choice Activists Speak Up, Leave Comments: A month ago, the Obama administration moved to repeal the Bush-era Federal Refusal Rule and pro-choice Americans everywhere commented on the HHS website to ensure their support of this action was recognized. April 9 (yesterday) was the deadline for comments. We'll keep you posted as to the next move by the Obama administration, but that leads us to the next item...

... Donna Crane, policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, takes her act on the road: Anti-choicers say "conscience clause," we say "Federal Refusal Rule," but no matter what you call it, Donna Crane had the issue covered on Wednesday. On Cox broadcasting (airing in Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas and California), Donna clarified the dangerous affects of this unnecessary rule. Then, she hopped on over to CNN, where she did it all over again, this time for the Lou Dobbs show:  

To watch the segment, visit the Lou Dobbs website.

Rep. Paul Hodes Does New Hampshire Proud: This week, we praised pro-choice Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) for working to eliminate funding for dangerous and deceptive "abstinence-only" programs in the FY'10 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. Other pro-choice lawmakers aiding this specific effort include Reps. Lois Capps (D-CA), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Jane Harman (D-CA), and Diana DeGette (D-CO).

We never tire of pro-choice lawmakers taking the lead on policies that prevent unintended pregnancy and therefore reduce the need for abortion. Thanks Rep. Hodes!

Three-for-Three: in name and in coverage: While we're still in the early stages of our Three-for-Three campaign (to ensure the confirmation of three key Obama nominees: Judge David Hamilton, Prof. Dawn Johnsen, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius), we've still managed to go three-for-three in the media coverage of our campaign. Check out two great posts: one in Talking Points Memo DC and one shout-out in Politico. In a piece titled "NARAL Targeting Moderate Republicans, Conservative Democrats," reporter Brian Beutler spoke with our policy director Donna Crane:

Today, I spoke with NARAL's policy director Donna Crane, who gave me a bit more detail about the nature of their campaign. "We have emails going out [to members of Congress] almost every day," Crane said, "[and] we're doing phone banking for targeted senators."

Those targets won't come as much surprise. Crane says, "in general the senators we look at for these kinds of issues are the two senators from Maine, [Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins] pulled one way by their party and another by their values." She adds that "Sen. Specter...is somebody we're looking at very closely."

Stay tuned for more information.

Meet the new Rahm Emanuel, Representative-elect Mike Quigley: Another day, another seat safe in the pro-choice column! On Tuesday, Mike Quigley easily defeated his anti-choice opponent with 69 percent of the vote. Representative-elect Quigley has been a strong supporter of the right to choose as a county commissioner and we look forward to working with him in Congress. NARAL Pro-Choice America mobilized its volunteers and activists in the final weeks of the campaign to keep IL-05 in the pro-choice column by sending email alerts to NARAL Pro-Choice America's 1800+ activists in the district urging them to vote for Quigley.

While the pro-choice world collectively holds their breath for a Scott Murphy win in NY-20, there still hasn't been a final ruling. Last counts have Murphy in an eight-vote lead, but nothing has been certified. We'll keep you posted.

Great news for pro-choice Americans from the Senate this week.

First, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) offered an amendment to a national-service bill that would have made anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" (CPCs) explicitly eligible for federal funding for the first time ever. Federal funding for fake clinics that deceive and intimidate vulnerable women? Good thing the Senate said, "No way!" As NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan said, "It would have been wrong for the Senate to legitimize these practices in any way."

Then, during debate in the Budget Committee, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) proposed an amendment that would have taken the first step toward extending the Title V "abstinence-only" program for five more years! Seriously? The last budget cut funding for these failed programs, and President Obama has called for decision-making based on facts, not ideology. That means getting age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education programs into our schools. Bravo to the pro-choice senators on the Budget Committee for stopping this bad idea.

It's official: Thanks to you, we have a pro-choice federal budget! President Obama signed the 2009 federal budget into law today, and your support for commonsense changes made the following items possible:

• Family-planning programs are getting a boost. This includes the domestic family-planning program that provides health care, including birth control, to women and families, and international family-planning programs that provide poor women overseas with contraception and other services.
• Funding for Bush's failed "abstinence-only" programs is trimmed, which is a step in the right direction. Next, we need to change the "abstinence-only" policy altogether.
• The birth-control price crisis is fixed! Students and low-income women suffered a dramatic increase in their birth-control prescription costs due to a mistake in a 2005 bill. Now they will have access to affordable birth control, which is crucial in these hard economic times.

Passing the budget wasn't easy. Even with more pro-choice votes, we were challenged with not one but four anti-choice amendments filed in the Senate. We beat back one and fortunately the other three never came up for a vote, but these attacks show that our opponents aren't giving up or listening to reason.

So please take a moment to update your Facebook status, tweet, blog, leave a comment below and/or work your social-media magic to celebrate this hard-fought win. You deserve it.

And then, let's get back to work!

What do these two headlines have in common?

Obama Aims to Shield Science From Politics

Obama moves to strengthen role of science in policy

The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other news outlets have been covering this "wild-and-crazy" phenomenon of the Obama administration keeping ideology out of science and public health. I know it doesn't sound "wild-and-crazy" at face value, but given the last eight years, it's a relatively new occurrence for a president. NARAL Pro-Choice America has an outstanding document that, um, documents President Bush's pattern of putting his anti-choice political ideology into science:

Since his first months in office, President Bush and his administration have politicized public health and subverted science in favor of an ideological agenda on a range of health issues. President Bush has used all the powers of his presidency to obstruct scientific research, censor factual medical information, and stack scientific advisory committees with right‐wing ideologues.

Medical evidence, not politics, should form the underpinnings of scientific and public-health-related policies. Scientific credentials, not ideology, should govern appointments to scientific advisory committees. The Bush administration's history of censorship, misleading statements, unabashed scientific revisionism, and targeted intrusions into scientific decision‐making processes casts doubt on the credibility of American science and compromises our ability to understand, prevent, and treat diseases. The growing influence of ideology on science is cause for grave concern. Simply put: the Bush administration is playing politics with people's health.

Well, thank goodness those years are over, right?

The Obama administration has indicated their desire to put the science back in... science. Melody C. Barnes, director of Obama's Domestic Policy Council, told the Washington Post:

The president believes that it's particularly important to sign this memorandum so that we can put science and technology back at the heart of pursuing a broad range of national goals.

I hope that this as a sign that other medically-accurate programs such as comprehensive sex education will finally replace the dangerous and disproven "abstinence-only" programs that President Bush and his anti-choice allies were so fond of funding? I'm being quite optimistic right now, but check out what happened last night regarding "abstinence-only" programs. 

Kirsten Suhr is the Associate Director of Communications for Online Strategies at NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Yesterday, the House passed the 2009 omnibus budget bill. This bill will fund the rest of the federal budget for 2009 (it's different from the budget President Obama spoke about on Tuesday night - confusing, I know). The omnibus bill included a number of pro-choice provisions. The best way to explain this bill is that funding for good programs is going up, while funding for bad ones is going down:

• Reduced funding for failed "abstinence-only" programs
• Increased funding for family planning (birth control, annual exams)
• The fix for the birth control pricing crisis

All of these provisions are great steps in the right direction, so we're really excited they made it into the bill! Now the bill needs to clear the Senate before it can be sent on to President Obama to sign.

Of course, some anti-choice Senators aren't happy about these provisions and might put up a fight. So we need your help.

Contact your Senators TODAY to tell them to support the pro-choice provisions in the omnibus budget bill.

With election-coverage in overdrive, I wanted to be sure to mention what's going on in Congress these days.

Right now, they're busy writing next year's budget bill, and determining what programs get funded at what levels. If you're like me, you're wondering if they're going to make birth control affordable for students, ensure that low-income women have access to affordable reproductive-health services, and cut funding for dangerous and discredited "abstinence-only" programs... among other things.

We need as much political will behind these pro-choice priorities as possible - especially given President Bush's persistent veto threats.

This is, naturally, where you come in. Please take a moment to call on your lawmaker to stand firm for these important initiatives:

• Fix the birth-control crisis. Congress must bring down the price of birth control to $5 or $10 instead of $50+ for students and low-income women. As you know, two years ago Congress inadvertently eliminated many health-care clinics' access to deeply discounted birth control and as a result, millions of low-income women and college students have seen the price of their birth control skyrocket. THE ASK: Please preserve the Senate bill's language to fix the problem.
• Improve women's health by increasing funds for the federal family-planning program. The House bill recommended a $315 million funding level for Title X. THE ASK: Please support this recommended $315 million funding level.
• Cut taxpayer dollars on fraudulent "abstinence-only" programs. These programs are unproven and dangerous. THE ASK: Support the Senate's recommended cut of $28 million.

Together, these three provisions will go a long way toward protecting women's reproductive health and together we can speak up on behalf of women whose everyday lives are affected by these federal policies and programs. So thanks for your help and support.

What would sex education look like in McCain's world?

 

Yikes! In McCain's World, America has an "abstinence-only" policy. Do you want sex education to look like the video above? McCain does. Seriously.

Take a moment to visit McCain's World so this video does not become our reality.

After an amazing time in Austin, TX (we love this city!) and and incredible time at Netroots Nation, vlogger and blogger - Lauren and myself, respectively - are catching our flight back to DC. Yes, it's a little bit early, but after the days we've had here, we know we've gotten a lot out of this experience. I mean, this morning alone - we've seen Speaker Pelosi, Vice President Al Gore, a plethora of netroots nation candidates, and NARAL Pro-Choice America's own: Nancy Keenan.

Nancy is here to present on a panel, Big Telecom: An Emerging Threat to Our Democracy? with  some of our progressive friends.

Lauren gives her final vlog send-off below:

Phew! I'm exhausted (and full) just listening to that!

But seriously, we can't wait to get back to work in DC so that we can put into practice all of the valuable lessons we've learned. I hope you've enjoyed watching our Netroots Nation Nuggets (great name or greatest name ever?) and we'll see you next week for more updates on reproductive health!

P.S. I know it's in the blog post below, but in case you missed it, check out our video of Speaker Pelosi answering a question about abstinence-only education!

Oh boy! What a treat! This morning at Netroots Nation, while Lauren and I sat at the Ask The Speaker morning session, we were pleasantly surprised to hear a man ask the Speaker a question about abstinence-only education!

We were pretty excited to hear the question, and even more excited to hear her answer... so take a look below (and I'm going to go ahead and apologize in advance for the not-so-stellar quality of the video. I was taken a little off guard, and there was lots going on around me. But no excuses - I'll do better next time!):


Speaker Pelosi is right - let's protect our pro-choice incumbents and elect more pro-choice candidates so we can protect our reproductive rights and give our kids the comprehensive-sex education they deserve!

Wow. You gotta love Jon Stewart and the crew from The Daily Show. Take a look at the video below of the perspective they bring to last week's abstinence-only hearing:

 

Donna Crane is Policy Director for NARAL Pro-Choice America

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of attending the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's first pro-choice hearing on Bush's dangerous and discredited "abstinence-only" policy.

Under the chairmanship of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the panel examined "abstinence-only" programs and considered their failure rates against the following facts:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that one in four girls has a sexually transmitted infection.
• Ninety-five percent of Americans have sex before they get married.
• Teen-birth rates are once again on the rise, and American teen-pregnancy rates are much higher than other industrialized countries.
• Scientific evidence overwhelmingly proves that "abstinence-only" programs do not work at delaying sex, reducing the frequency of sex, or the number of partners.

Of course, as one has come to expect, President Bush and his anti-choice allies continue to ignore these scientific facts and push hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into failed and discredited "abstinence only" programs. Our teens need accurate information to stay healthy and protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and disease - and under the Bush policy, they simply aren't getting it.

I know I just bummed you out, but now it's time for the good stuff. Chairman Waxman and several other committee members - Reps. Paul Hodes (D-NH), Peter Welch (D-VT), Chris Shays (R-CT), and John Sarbanes (D-MD)) - worked hard to expose these ineffective programs... and they succeeded. I now present you with the "greatest hits" of the "abstinence-only" hearing:

• Okay, okay, some "abstinence-only" programs don't work. Want to know who admitted that one right off the bat? None other than former presidential nominee Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)! Shocked he would actually admit that? So were we, but it only speaks to how bad these programs truly are.
• The experts agree: The programs fail teens and taxpayers alike! Noting the alarming statistics of teen-pregnancy and STD rates, freshman Rep. Hodes - one of Congress' new 26 pro-choice lawmakers - asked witnesses if they thought the federal government's "abstinence-only" policy was an effective response to our nation's adolescent reproductive-health crisis. The medial and scientific experts - including representatives from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, and the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine - all firmly answered "NO!" Talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars - $1.5 billion of them to be exact!
• Medically accurate? Sure, in theory... Under a tough line of questioning from pro-choice freshman Rep. Welch, Sen. Brownback conceded that federally funded programs should be proven effective. He also admitted they should be medically accurate. Really, senator - you agree that taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used to "teach" our kids that you can contract HIV/AIDS through sweat and tears? Too bad you refuse to write medical accuracy into the law!
• Hypocrisy! Next up: Rep. Shays, who was quick to point out the hypocrisy of the anti-choicers. At one point, he said in disbelief, "Throughout the course of this hearing, I've asked my colleagues if they'd had pre-marital sex, and they all said yes!" I have to admit, this was one of the most entertaining moments of the hearing, made even more so when the anti-choice members sitting next to us put their heads in their hands with dismay upon hearing this revelation.
• Mr. Chairman! Rep. Sarbanes - who is also new to Congress - was another pro-choice champion at the hearing. In fact, when Chairman Waxman had to step out of the room for a few minutes, he left his gavel in the hands of Rep. Sarbanes, who continued the excellent lines of questioning! You can read a wrap-up on his questioning over at the NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland blog, C.R.A.Blog.

So there you have it: the "greatest hits" of the "abstinence-only" hearing. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as we enjoyed watching it all unfold.

I want to reiterate that pro-choice Americans should be really proud of the pro-choice committee members that attended the hearing and asked some fabulous questions. We know we can count on them to speak up for commonsense solutions, and that is the real difference we can expect from a Congress now in pro-choice hands.

Of course, NARAL Pro-Choice America has opposed "abstinence-only" programs since their inception, and has long urged Congress to invest instead in traditional sex-education programs that teach young people about both abstinence and contraception. Be sure to click here to read the testimony, submitted by Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Today, Rep. Jim Moran (VA-08) led a contingent of 76 key lawmakers in sending House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey a letter requesting that funding for unproven so-called "abstinence-only" programs be left out of this year's Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill. This comes on the heals of an April 2007 study conducted by the independent research firm Mathematica, which concluded that students in "abstinence-only" programs were no more likely to abstain from sex, delay initiation of sex, or have fewer sexual partners than students who did not participate .

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America , was quoted as saying:

As a former teacher and state superintendent of education, I commend Rep. Moran and his colleagues for standing up for our teens' health. Americans, especially parents, are anxious about the rise in the teen birth rate and reports that one in four teen girls have a sexually transmitted infection. The Bush-backed 'abstinence-only' policies that led to these problems are failing. The public wants Congress to follow Rep. Moran's lead and make the changes necessary to ensure our teens get the factual information they need to make responsible decisions and protect themselves from disease.

William Smith, Vice President for Public Policy at the Sexual Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) stated:

Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have been an enormous waste of resources. Representative Moran and his colleagues are to be commended for tackling this issue and echoing the desires of their varied constituencies, including Virginia, a state that has rejected the abstinence-only-until-marriage approach.

Click here to read the whole release and the letter sent to Chairman Obey. You can find a recently updated fact sheet on "abstinence-only" programs here and the Mathematica study here .