Administration Promoting Abstinence; Family Planning Efforts Are Being Scaled Back

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Administration Promoting Abstinence; Family Planning Efforts Are Being Scaled Back

Washington Post (07.30.01) - Monday, July 30, 2001
Ceci Connolly

The Bush administration is making a fundamental change in how the federal government approaches issues involving reproductive health, scaling back efforts to promote family planning and contraception while aggressively promoting abstinence-only programs. Since taking office, Bush and his top aides have refused to allow states to expand family planning services for poor women, reimposed a ban on abortion counseling at overseas health clinics, released a report questioning the effectiveness of condoms and proposed eliminating mandatory contraceptive coverage for federal employees. Public health experts are becoming increasingly concerned that the emerging approach is based more on ideology than science, and that the changes may set back recent successes in reducing teen pregnancies and the spread of STDs and AIDS.

When Surgeon General David Satcher released a report touting sex education that included discussions of abstinence and contraception, White House officials quickly distanced themselves and began circulating the names of possible Satcher replacements. And officials at the CDC and National Institutes of Health (NIH) tried in vain to halt release of a report concluding there was "insufficient evidence" that condoms prevented most STDs. Health care providers warned that the report was dangerously misleading. Although condoms do not protect against certain infections that can be transmitted through the skin, they do protect against diseases spread through bodily fluids, said Bernadine Healy, head of the NIH in the first Bush administration.

In February 2000, Advocates for Youth developed a package of videos and pamphlets to help parents discuss sexual health with their children. The CDC paid the group $200,000 for the materials, which were to be distributed through its Business Responds to AIDS program. Last fall, CDC staffers forwarded the packets to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where career civil servant Boyd Work, an ordained Catholic deacon, detailed his objections in an e-mail. "You should know that [HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson] is a devout Roman Catholic.... Do you think he'll buy off on the nature and scope of the content?" Work wrote. On Friday, Thompson's political strategist Kevin Keane said the e-mail was withdrawn and that he would review the materials. Thompson "is not an ideologue; he's a pragmatist," Keane said. Advocates for Youth President James Wagoner said, "In the seven months the administration has held up this project, nearly 12,000 young people have contracted HIV in this country."

Congress has approved a $20 million funding increase for abstinence-only programs in the current fiscal year, which is to rise by $30 million next year. Administration officials say their goal is to spend $135 million annually on abstinence education, which would match current spending for family planning. The administration has proposed no increase in spending for traditional family planning programs.
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