Congratulations to The Palm Beach Post for their op-ed last Sunday "To have fewer abortions, stop subsidizing the lies." The editorial denounces Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) and takes the position that CPCs should not receive public funds. We have previously highlighted the lies and deceitful tactics used by these health-center-imitators, but it bears repeating until funding goes to medically-accurate programs (instead of zealots who believe that stopping abortion justifies lying to and harassing women).
As if we needed any more proof that America needs REAL sex education, Sen. John McCain provided it last week. McCain was completely baffled by a question about whether he believed that federal funding for contraceptives—including condoms—in Africa could help slow the spread of HIV/AIDS.
He must have gotten his information from one of many federally funded abstinence-only programs that seem designed to undermine confidence in contraceptives.
Or, maybe this was just another example of political prevarication. But political calculation like this is exposing American youth to ideologically driven abstinence-only programs that leave them woefully ill-prepared to make healthy, responsible decisions about sexuality. That these programs are often filled with wild exaggerations of contraceptive failure rates and other gross medical and scientific inaccuracies leave many young people truly unsure of whether condoms can help protect them from unwanted pregnancy and STD's.
Yesterday, I blogged about how PEPFAR's Third Annual Report to Congress reveals that the United States is not doing as much on treatment in the 15 focus countries as many believed it was. I combated the myth that PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is providing treatment for 822,000 people.
Today, I combat another treatment myth—that generics account for 70% of PEPFAR's expenditure on anti-retroviral AIDS drugs. And I take issue with the argument that since the abstinence-until-marriage spending requirement is "only one-third of the prevention budget, it really isn't that big of a problem."
What if I told you that this past Friday, March 16th, Mexico City ushered in a new day, as two gay men became the first to marry under a brand new local law recognizing civil unions for homosexual couples? Don't answer. Now imagine that the municipal assembly and mayor of the city are also preparing to pass laws legalizing abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. Keep silent. What if I remind you that Mexico is 90 percent Catholic? Okay, now scream. Mexico City is bypassing many American states in its ability to de-magnetize the most polarizing of socio-cultural issues.
"No church, no religion can impose its vision of the world in this city," said Assembly leader Victor Hugo Cirigo, a member of the ruling leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution. Words we long to hear from many of our U.S. representatives, state and city leaders are heard around the world as Mexico City sprints to the front of the pack.
PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is no stranger to criticism. However, most of the focus of the criticism to date has been PEPFAR's requirement that one-third of prevention money be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs.
Other than some initial criticism about not buying generic AIDS medications, the global AIDS advocacy community has mostly praised PEPFAR on its treatment efforts. (PEPFAR's goal of "supporting treatment for 2 million people in 15 focus countries by 2008" has been seen as a crucial step in gaining universal access to treatment by 2010.) Reports that PEPFAR is on-target to reach 2 million people by 2008 (treating 822,000 by the end of 2006) and that it has scaled-up its use of generic drugs have increased that praise lately.
However, PEPFAR's third annual report to Congress (The Power of Partnerships: Third Annual Report to Congress) reveals that we need to reconsider most of the advocacy community's assumptions about the scale of PEPFAR's treatment efforts.
Tuesday, March 20 is the sixth annual Back Up Your Birth ControlDay of Action, and today, a coalition of more than 100 women's health and medical organizations will undertake dozens of educational activities nationwide. Their message is simple: back up your birth control with Emergency Contraception (EC), which can prevent pregnancy if taken up to 72 hours after unprotected intercourse. EC has been available over the counter in the United States since 2006, following a three-year political kerfuffle at the FDA. Women under 18 still need a prescription, which is why many of today's events will focus on increasing adolescent girls' access to information about EC. Here are a few ways to get involved (after the break) ...
Last Friday, reporters managed to stump 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain. What tough topic caused the senator to pause awkwardly and stumble for an answer? Iraq? No ... Poverty? Try again ... Healthcare? Getting closer ... Contraception? Bingo! Specifically, whether contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV and should they be publicly funded.
Now, this should be a no-brainer. Honestly, anyone who has been through sex ed should know that condoms are highly effective in preventing HIV infection. Oh wait ... except that abstinence-only education gets tons of funding (while comprehensive sex ed gets none) and so it is prevalent in our nation's schools despite the fact that it doesn't teach kids medically accurate information, it doesn't teach them how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and abstinence-only programs actually spread misinformation and religious dogma. Well, don't worry—McCain is also confused about his position on sexuality education. After a long pause, he decided that he thinks he supports the president's policy.
Move over Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Karen Hughes: the Society for the Blaming of Terrorist Attacks on Abortions, Feminists, and Gay People has a new member, and his rhetoric leaves yours in the dust. Meet Steven Mosher, president of Population Research Institute (PRI), a "non-profit research and educational organization dedicated to objectively presenting the truth about population-related issues," and the source of countless objective presentations of truth on sexual and reproductive health. Mosher and PRI are perhaps most famous for their misinformation campaign against UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), the world's largest multilateral provider of reproductive health services, resulting in the Bush administration's decision to freeze the traditional $34 million U.S. contribution to UNFPA for five years running. It's nice when Steve &friends get to dictate U.S. policy on reproductive health, isn't it?
Mosher's latest screed—whoops, I meant objective presentation of truth about population-related issues—comes in the form of a PRI Weekly Briefing titled "How Not to Win the War on Terror: Keep Exporting Abortion and Sex Education."
Last week, as we heard about American women in war, another story about women and war surfaced. An article in the NY Times reported that the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is refusing to acknowledge that Japanese (and other) women were forced into sex-slavery by the military during World War II.
This weekend, after a great stirring of emotions and controversy, the government of Japan reiterated its stance. The women who lived through it, however, are refusing to accept this distortion of history.
My college age daughter and I went to see Spring Awakening on Wednesday. Hailed as a bold and ground-breaking Broadway musical concerned with adolescent sexuality, I expected to love it.
