$28M for Abstinence Education, $50B for Planned Parenthood, both, or neither?
Citizen Link reports: “President Bush’s budget proposal for 2009 includes $204 million to support Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) — a $28 million increase over last year’s budget for the program.”
While Family Research Council’s Washington Update reports:
In the last few weeks, we’ve all seen how Planned Parenthood manages its money. From allegations that it committed $180 million in fraud to hiring employees that accept racially-motivated donations, the “family planning” movement has proven just how untrustworthy it is. That message has yet to sink in with one of the Senate’s most outspoken proponents, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). She plans to introduce an amendment that would entrust even more money to the “family planning” crowd as part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). During the mark-up of S. 2731, she threatened to offer language that would make abortion providers and promoters eligible for big pieces of PEPFAR’s $50 billion pie. In all likelihood, Boxer will propose the idea on the Senate floor . . .
The Harvard Crimson has this editorial arguing against abstinence: There’s No Sex Like Safe Sex: The alarming rate of STIs among teenage girls underscores the need for more sex ed
Meanwhile the Southern Appeal blog responding to an editorial by the Macon Telegraph makes this point:
Is the board really arguing that the Bush Administration’s support and funding of abstinence programs during these two years is the sole or primary reason so many young ladies have STDs? This strikes me as a patently silly notion. It seems to me much more likely that the high STD rate is attributable to a rotting culture that teaches young women from a very early age that their self worth is intrinsically bound to their sexuality.