Democrats Abstain From Principles: Fund Bush Anti-Sex Education Programs at Record Level

Late last week, the Democratic controlled Labor HHS Appropriations Conference Committee endorsed a record $141 million dollar budget for community-based abstinence-only-until-marriage programs which prohibit information about condoms and birth control.

The record-level increase, pushed by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI), flies in the face of a congressionally mandated evaluation showing that abstinence-only programs have "no impact on adolescent behavior." Astonishingly, the windfall was larger than what President Bush had been able to obtain from the prior conservative, Republican-controlled Congress!

In one outrageous move, the Democrats managed to put the health and safety of millions of young people at risk, promote programs that spread ignorance in the era of AIDS, and slap their party's brand on one of the biggest ideological boondoggles in recent congressional history. Over $1.5 billion dollars have been spent over the last decade on programs that simply do not work!

The architect of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, must be pinching himself to make sure he isn't dreaming. When these programs were created as a beneath-the-radar amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill in 1996, ultra-conservative opponents of sex education knew they had launched a major strategic initiative with the potential to achieve many of their goals relating to sexual health in America.

By censoring health-saving information about condoms and birth control and stressing only "failure rates," they seriously undercut the credibility of contraception with America's youth. By placing sexual health information in an ideological, rather than a public health frame, they were also able to promote their own narrow views on topics like abortion, sexual orientation, and gender roles.

Many of the abstinence-only curricula strayed far from the facts. This was documented by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) in a 2004 government oversight committee report showing that over 80% of programs contained "false or misleading information." The medical and ethical implications of this disinformation campaign were so significant that in 2006 the Society of Adolescent Medicine warned that abstinence-only programs "threaten fundamental human rights to health, information and life."

Once upon a time the Democrats were vocal in their opposition to abstinence-only programs. Citing the enormous volume of evidence against the programs and the fact that virtually all mainstream medical and public health organizations were in opposition, Democrats used abstinence-only policy as a case study to support their claim that the Bush administration promoted "ideology over science" in public health policy. When former Bush administration Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, was called to testify before Congress recently, he cited abstinence-only as one of the prime examples of the Administration's political interference during his tenure.

So why are the Democrats, now in power, embracing the same programs they denigrated in opposition?

Representative David Obey's barely concealed antipathy towards sex education and other reproductive health issues is well-known to those who lobby his committee on the Hill. But how has one recalcitrant committee chairman managed to hijack the Democratic policy on sex education?

Apparently, he had help. Sex education supporters recently learned that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signed off on the funding increase. In addition, none of the erstwhile supporters of sex education on the House appropriations committee -- Nita Lowey (D-NY), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jesse Jackson (D-IL), Betty McCollum (D-MN) -- offered a single amendment to slow Obey's effort to raise abstinence-only funding to record levels. Congressman Waxman, once a vocal opponent of these programs, has gone silent.

So, clearly, there is more to this abstinence-only funding debacle than the "Obey being Obey" excuse being offered up by many of the insiders.

Of course, other excuses have been put forth. The abstinence-only provisions were intended to obtain Republican votes sufficient to overturn a presidential veto. That excuse went up in smoke when Republicans made clear that while they praised the Chairman's efforts to increase funding for abstinence-only programs, they would not give him the votes to override a veto on legislation that included other programs they opposed.

Another popular excuse is that ending funding for failed abstinence-only programs would be too "controversial." This excuse also rings hollow in light of public opinion research, much of it conducted by pollsters who work with the Democrats, showing that the vast majority of Americans, parents included, support a comprehensive rather than an abstinence-only approach to sex education.

I fear that the real answer to the question "why did this happen?" is the obvious one. It happened because nobody stood up to stop it. We suffered a stunning failure of congressional leadership, pure and simple.

So, where do we go from here? The blame for this failure goes well beyond Chairman Obey. It is high time we stopped buying into the "dog ate my homework" excuses of Members who claim to be sex education advocates, but refuse to stand up for young people when it really counts We make a big mistake when we don't hold our allies and friends accountable when they desert core principles without a fight.

In addition to using our grassroots networks -- blogs, letters, phone calls, and contributions -- to hold members accountable, we have to focus their attention on the principles and the politics at play with this issue. It is immoral to fund programs that deprive young people of sexual health information in a country with 27 million sexually active young people under the age of 25.

It is smart politics to support comprehensive sex education, which includes information about abstinence and contraception, because that's what the research says works and that's what parents support.

Comprehensive sex education is included in the Democratic leadership bills in both the House and the Senate. The time has come to move these bills and to find leaders who will stand up to Mr. Obey during the next appropriations cycle. Only then will we be able to turn off the funding spigot for ideological programs that don't work and threaten the health and lives of young people.

Comments

[erfatron]

Is anyone shocked at this? Has the Democratic party shown anything resembling principles in recent memory, beside the principles involved in clinging to power?
If you take this as an endorsement of the GOP you're an idiot.
I'm voting for divided gov't next year. Less legislation gets passed, so less damage is done.

[DickTater]

Time for Obey to Gobey. He has been ineffectual at best, a meddling fruitbat turncoat at worst.

The guy showed his stripes when he lashed out at antiwar folks. He thinks that only his vaunted mental powers are keeping the democratic raft afloat. And that the Great Unwashed should stay out of his lofty, idealistic struggle.

[eddiestardust]

I continue to ask this question:

Since we are adults, why can't we be held responsible for our actions?

Why can't we point out that we wouldn't need contraceptives if we taught our young men to be responsible?

Why is it that women let these guys get away with murder...oh, it's ok to have sex but it's not ok to be responsible?

Sheesh!

[rixhex56]

It is time for civilized, intelligent, thinking people to take a firm stand against RELIGION. The only thing that keeps people who believe religious dogma from being locked up in white padded cells is their sheer numbers -- there are just too many of them. And, unfortunately, medications don't work on them like they do for schizophrenia and other schizo-affective disorders.

We are facing REAL problems in the REAL world, and their imaginary friends are not going to help us. Religions need to be marginalized and their beliefs completely eliminated from national debate of ANY issue. This needs to happen simultaneously with the other suggestions for removing sell-outs from office.

[UnionJok]

Did they mention the Junior Anti-Sex League?

[Pandu]

I wish I had been taught the importance of abstinence when I was a kid.

[bernusdellus]

There's a bigger picture here that's becoming obvious over time. We're set up to think of the GOP as the 'bad guys' and the dems as the 'good guys'. I think its time to accept the fact that they are just two faces of the same machine. There was no reasonable compulsion on Pelosi to come out with the famous 'impeachment is off the table' remark. So why did she say it? Obvious... Its the one thing that could realistically stop this debacle. In my opinion, pelosi is, in covert intelligence parlance, a 'mole'.

At every turn dems talk the talk then walk the other way. Face it folks, the entire structure of US government has been hijacked and all thats left is a piece of theatre designed to fool the public into thinking they still have a democracy.

I don't think we'll be presented with the opportunity to fix this by conventional means. God help our kids.

[rextrek]

These Abstinense til Marraige programs BLATANTLY discriminate against Gay & Lesbian Americans...since Marriage is NOT Open to them (one state,NOT Federal) so basically..it's Taxation without Representation - period!

[devildog21]

Does anyone truly believe that we still have a representative style of government? That has not been the case for at least 20 years if not longer.

It has been perfectly clear that politicians don't give a damn what their constituents want, they will only act based on their own conscience, belief, or corporate bosses desires.

Welcome to fascism.

[PigLipstick]

Jim,

Thank you for bringing this up, I watched a C-Span video of Mr. Obey's speech to the National Press Club yesterday on The Showdown over Federal Budget Priorities. When he said that they had given Bush his funding request for Abstinence Only Programs I couldn't believe it, it is a total betrayal of core Democrat values.

Pres. Jimmy Carter implemented Condom use in a few selected African countries through his Carter Center. Previous to these programs, new AIDS infections were running an average of 13%; a year later new cases of AIDS had dropped to an average of 6%. The Bush administration, through the State Department, approached the leadership in these countries and told them they would shut off all U.S. and World Bank Funding if they didn't embrace Abstinence Only Programs. A year later the AIDS rate had risen back to 9%.

How can we continue to spew our hypocrisy about the Apartheid of former African leadership while we sentence many of the African people to death to secure the political approval of a fundamentalist U.S. voting block?

[jazzman]

The Democratic Party isn't the party we think it is. We're voting for God knows what when we support Democrats. They have no guiding philosophy, no principles, no point of view. They are just a projection of our fantasies about a former party that cared about the people of the U.S. However, they are marching to the tune of a different drummer and that drummer isn't it's constitutency. So we don't have party that represents or cares about the citizens of the U.S. or progressive issues and we have no way of getting these issues on the agenda anymore without having them triangulated and watered down to death.

[wishiknew]

I've said it before and I will say it again: until we have someone willing to risk the future of his or her political career in order to do right by this country, we can pretty much expect most if not all of our elected officials to spend 5% of their time doing their job, and the other 95% trying to figure out how to keep their job.
and until dems can gain any sense of solidarity of purpose, or we all figure out a way to force them to do so, repubs will continue to win seats purely because the republicans have devoted 100% of their time towards controlling their FLOCK with fear, lies, distraction and mass manipulation tactics. ugh, i have to go throw up now.

[MikeDu]

"Conventional wisdom" used to be that a politician kept his head down and his powder dry until after the campaign was over. But the election cycle NOW stretchs a full four years! That results in the politicians in permanent 'duck and cover' mode. For Democrats its straining to avoid spooking their gun-shy center/right. Republicans are forced even further right to continually pander to the 'snake-handler' fringe of the party. Do you REALLY think Fred Thompson and his child bride are really concerned about the morality of teen sex? Its not just the Dem leadership thats broke, its the whole freakin' institution.

[MsLiz]

The money spent on this program would be better spent on SCHIP.

It's all about who receives the money. It is political patronage. Welfare for the Wealthy.

[emsique]

We may not have a viable third party, but it is time for progressive Democrats to challenge the neowimps in the primaries. Get Feinstein, Reid, Pelosi, Schumer and the rest of these sellouts out of here!