Beyond union busting, Walker now moves to eliminate access to contraception for low-income women and a return to allowing insurance companies to deny coverage for contraceptive supplies.
When the smoke cleared from health reform, we found out that a quarter of a billion dollars had been inserted into the bill ostensibly as a “sweetner” for conservatives.
Last summer, the $50 million-a-year federal Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage grant program died a quiet death, only to come back to life, zombie-like, in the healthcare reform bill.
Recently, Governor Perry co-signed a letter
with four other governors to Senators Baucus and Grassley, requesting that
Title V abstinence-only until marriage federal funding be reinstated.
SIECUS research this year shows that there are now seven states that are completely free of any federal abstinence-only-until-marriage money.
Rejecting abstinence-only funding is only one part of the movement to educate and empower young people; we also need to pro-actively normalize comprehensive, medically-accurate sexuality education in American schools.
Luckily, Barack Obama’s budget left out Title V funding for
abstinence-only education, and now the right wing is up in arms. And it’s going to the Senate Budget Committee today, so now it’s our turn to speak up.
One of the common themes you’ll find in abstinence-only curricula is the constant shaming of young women who don’t uphold certain visual standards of chaste and purity.
The showdown in the Senate over the remaining Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations has members of the Republican party clamoring to cut spending. So why don’t they go after wasteful abstinence-only earmarks?
Yesterday, Congressional Democrats took a tentative step towards eliminating abstinence-only funding with a $14 million reduction. That still leaves $95 million in taxpayer money thrown down the drain.
