Family Planning

from Talk to Action

From the March 18 lead editorial in the Palm Beach Post.

To have fewer abortions, stop subsidizing the lies

Public money should not pay for fear-mongering 'crisis pregnancy centers' that peddle lies about fetal development, contraception and abortion.

Florida, like the federal government, spends millions each year supporting such centers, many of which are run by religious zealots who see abstinence-only as the only alternative to abortion and for whom scientific facts do not matter.
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If reducing abortion is the goal, avoiding unwanted pregnancy is the way to reach that goal. That means investing in centers and schools that provide unbiased, medically accurate, comprehensive information about the benefits of delaying sexual intercourse and the availability of contraception to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. Investing in fear and lies guarantees only more unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

Women deserve much more than they're getting from state governments controlled by the religious right, and several Texas Democrats in the 80th Legislature are providing a template for making that happen — in our state and all the others.

Planned Parenthood recently came up in discussions on this site. Well, here is their latest campaign to protect our family planning choices:

Planned Parenthood is launching one of the most important birth control campaigns in our 90-year history. Our target audience is small, but influential — the 100 members of the United States Senate. We're working to provide them with vitally important facts about health care and birth control.

If you believe in birth control, we need you to act now. Send critical information about birth control and the Prevention First Act to the Senators who represent you in Congress.

Alert Congress now. Send them our "Prevention First" petition.

Since George W. Bush made the indefensible decision to put anti-birth control, anti-sex ed Eric Keroack in charge of the nation's family planning program, Planned Parenthood has gathered more than 116,000 petitions protesting the appointment.

Unbelievably, the man now in charge of America's family planning program spent years as medical director of a group that thinks birth control is "demeaning to women." Now, we've got to make it clear that we won't let Keroack, Bush, or anyone else stand in the way of our efforts to safeguard and expand access to birth control and family planning.

On the first day of the new Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), along with Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Barack Obama (D-IL), and others, introduced the vitally important Prevention First Act (S.21). Passing this legislation is a key part of Planned Parenthood's 2007 Prevention First agenda. We're pressing Congress to fully fund family planning services, increase access to services through Medicaid, and protect teens with real sex education.

It's official.

George Bush has appointed behind closed doors a Christian Fundamentalist extremist who believes too much sex affects the brain, birth control degrades women and abstinence (and by exstension forced pregnancy) should be the only choice in family planning:

From Washington Post :

Keroack, an obstetrician-gynecologist, will advise Secretary Mike Leavitt on matters such as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy. He will oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons."

The appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, was the latest provocative personnel move by the White House since Democrats won control of Congress in this month's midterm elections. President Bush last week pushed the Senate to confirm John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations and this week renominated six candidates for appellate court judgeships who have previously been blocked by lawmakers. Democrats said the moves belie Bush's post-election promises of bipartisanship.