[NYTr] The War on Contraception

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Progress Report - Dec 18, 2007
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/progressreport/


WOMEN'S RIGHTS

The War on Contraception

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, and Ali Frick

Every day in the United States, 10,000 young people acquire a
sexually-transmitted disease. Teen pregnancy rates in this country are
rising, and 2.5 million people worldwide contracted HIV in 2007.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration continues to push scientifically
unsound policies of abstinence education and defund widely-accepted
family planning programs. The price of birth control pills on college
campuses, for example, has skyrocketed from as little as $5 a month to
more than $40 because of changes in federal law. Yesterday, however,
congressional leaders blocked President Bush's attempt to expand
abstinence funding at the expense of vital domestic priorities,
freezing funding at approximately $115 million in the omnibus spending
bill. They also included over $305 million for Title X programs, which
provide "low-cost, confidential family planning services." "For the
first time in recent memory, congressional leaders are making a clear
investment in family planning, while finally putting the brakes on
Bush's failed 'abstinence-only' programs," noted NARAL Pro-Choice
President Nancy Keenan.

REJECTING ABSTINENCE: Abstinence-only education programs remain one of
the right wing's favorite pet projects, placing public health at the
mercy of ideology. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) recently added more than
two dozen earmarks for abstinence education totaling over $1 million to
a Labor and Health and Human Services appropriations measure. In
October, Bush appointed abstinence-only proponent Susan Orr to oversee
federal family planning programs; Orr once called contraceptives part
of the "culture of death." Yet along with Congress, state governments
are increasingly rejecting Bush's abstinence push. At least 14 states
have "either notified the federal government that they will no longer
be requesting the funds or are not expected to apply, forgoing more
than $15 million of the $50 million available." Last month, 10 leading
scientists in the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health
wrote to congressional leaders and "strongly" urged them to "reconsider
federal support for abstinence-only education programs and policies."
These concerns about Bush's reproductive health policies are
well-founded. After the proliferation of abstinence-only programs
nationwide, teen birth rates rose between 2005 and 2006, reversing a
14-year decline. A federal report released in April showed that
abstinence-only programs have had "no impacts on rates of sexual
abstinence."

GLOBAL GAG RULE CONTINUES: Despite these advancements in domestic
reproductive rights, the government-wide spending bill announced
yesterday was unable to increase support for international family
planning. Lacking the votes to override Bush's veto threat, Congress
was forced yesterday to drop its insistence that that the 2008 foreign
aid budget reverse a longstanding ban on providing aid -- including
donated contraceptives -- to organizations abroad that use their own
money to offer abortions, counsel about abortion, or advocate to change
their countries' abortion laws. Bush has supported this ban -- first
initiated by President Reagan in 1984 -- since taking office in 2001,
despite the fact that contraception is the most effective way to reduce
rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion. A recent study concluded
"abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those
where it is not." Additionally, "researchers found that abortion was
safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where
it was outlawed and performed clandestinely."

A 'DOGMATIC ADHERENCE TO AN ILLOGICAL POSITION': The Bush
administration's misguided abstinence-only policies have meant a
decrease in contraception funding. When Bush created his President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2003, administration
scientists "lobbied for reinvigorating international family planning
efforts," showing studies that "even a modest expansion of
contraceptive programs could prevent nearly three times the number of
child AIDS deaths as could antiretroviral programs for pregnant women."
Yet despite increasing evidence on the importance of contraceptives,
funding has continued to decline. Funding for birth control programs in
Bush's most recent budget "is less than one-third the amount spent in
1995, when adjusted for inflation." Furthermore, a Government
Accountability Office report in 2006 found that countries have had to
reduce spending on HIV/AIDS prevention in order to meet the Bush
administration's abstinence requirements. "This dogmatic adherence to
an illogical position...prevents us from working effectively to stop
the spread of HIV/AIDS and unintended pregnancies and reduce
abortions," said Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY).