Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tell Congress: Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs ARE NOT health Care Reform!

Today, details of the Reconciliation Act of 2010 were released, the latest version of the health care reform legislation, in a bid to create a package that will pass both the House and the Senate. Included in the final bill was the Personal Responsibility Education program, providing $75 million for a state grant program for more comprehensive approaches to sex education, which would be geared to evidence-based, medically accurate, age-appropriate programs to educate adolescents about both abstinence and contraception in order to prevent unintended teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS. However, the final bill also reinstated the failed Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage funding program, which directs $50 million a year to states to spend on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Funding for the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program lapsed on June 30, 2009, and had not been renewed.
But it's not too late for Congress to take action! Tell Congress to remove Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage funding from health care reform.
First, call House and Senate leadership right now and tell them:

"Remove the extension for the failed Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program from health care reform. Health care reform should not fund programs that put young people’s health and lives at risk by denying them life-saving information."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: 202.225.4965
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: 202.224.3542

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