Last week New Jersey became the fourth state to pull itself out of the federal scheme to distribute abstinence-only-until-marriage money. New Jersey, like Maine and California before it, decided that in addition to never having been proven effective as a broad strategy, the federal abstinence-only-until-marriage programs ran contrary to its own state's laws regarding sexuality education. If the state chose to accept the nearly $1 million of federal funds it was entitled to, it would not only have had to follow strict federal rules, it would also have had come up with a match of three state-raised dollars to every federal dollar. New Jersey's decision was therefore not just principled, but fiscally responsible as well.
There is no doubt that the coarseness of political life and the politics of personal destruction are tied to the rise of social conservative ideologues, and their fight against a woman's right to choose since Roe v. Wade. The advent of a "Culture War" was born out of a movement that opposed legalized abortion and pretended that was its only agenda for many years. But as religious belief turned from mission to power, the greatest of corrupting influences, the swagger of social ideologues and their control of the GOP, the White House, Congress, Courts, Governorships, State Legislatures and School Boards has them ready to take the next step, an all out war on contraception.
This past weekend in Chicago, Joe Schieldler's Pro-Life Action League hosted 250 people at a conference entitled Contraception Is Not The Answer, opening a new strategic front to advance their ever-more narrow agenda, coming from an ever-expanding cast of ideologically motivated organizations. If conservatives think our culture is coarse now, its probably good to remind them that coarseness is coming less from people actually having sex responsibly than it is from the way uptight ideologues and corporate marketeers and others talk about sex, making it seem clinical and shameful on one extreme, or detached and less sacred on the other. Take the average American's contraception away and its a safe bet life will be more coarse as people's tension increases.
One of those 250 people attending the two-day conference was Rewire's Associate Editor, Tyler LePard.
A federal judge has permanently enjoined USAID from enforcing its anti-prostitution policy on DKT International. From Phil Harvey, DKT President:
Judge Emmet Sullivan handed down his decision today in the case of DKT International v. USAID. The result is a major victory for DKT, for free speech, and for the integrity and independence of private US organizations.
Ruling that current US law, insofar as it requires "DKT to have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking" is "an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment." Judge Sullivan permanently enjoined USAID from enforcing the prostitution policy against DKT. His findings generally rest on the same legal grounds as the decision by Judge Marrero in the OSI case last week. The US government may not require private organizations to parrot the government's chosen speech as a condition for receiving government funding. Our injunction is permanent, so this part of the case is over. DKT will again seek USAID support for its AIDS-prevention programming in Vietnam and elsewhere.
Melinda Gates (yes, that Gates) writes in Newsweek about the big wrench in entrenched thinking about abstinence-only education: increasingly, women in the developing world are at greater risk contracting HIV within marriage than from any other source. The best solution? In her mind, microbicides. Behavior change would be great, but in the meantime, microbicides would save the lives of millions...
