Another
Victory! Congress ends Abstinence-only funds and Prioritizes
Reproductive Health in 2010
Appropriations!
On December 13,
Congress passed the 2010 Appropriations Bill, which provides
funding for important programs that provide women and families
with access to preventive care worldwide. The omnibus spending
bill, for the first time, eliminates funding for failed
abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, in favor of funding
evidence-based sex education that has proven effective in
preventing unintended pregnancy. The appropriations measure will
also fund international reproductive health and family planning
at an all-time high. The President is expected to sign the bill
into law on December 18th, ending nearly a decade of wasteful
spending on dangerous programs for
youth.
Missouri
Legislature Gears up for 2010 
On December 1,
Missouri Legislators began pre-filing bills for the 2010 session
and it’s clear that Representative Cynthia Davis does not
think the endless pages of law restricting abortion in
Missouri are enough.
She’s filed 4 dangerous and intrusive anti-choice bills
along with a very disturbing bill that removes the prohibition
on carrying firearms into places of worship. Last June, an
anti-choice activist walked into Dr. George Tiller’s
church and shot him to death. Dr. Tiller had been providing
abortion care in Wichita Kansas for over 30
years.
On the positive
front, Senator Robin Wright-Jones pre-filed the Prevention First
Act and a bill encouraging Prostate Cancer screening. In addition, Senator
Jolie Justus is proposing legislation that will increase
education about the connection between HPV and cervical cancer
and the availability of the HPV
vaccine.
Click
here for a complete bill summary.
In The
News...
House reform
plan costly to
women
The House's health
care reform bill was passed at the expense of American
women. Even though
federal law has prohibited tax money from going toward abortion
care for over 30 years, Rep. Bart Stupak shoved through an
extreme amendment that takes away insurance coverage from
millions of women who already have it - including women who
would pay for it out of their own pockets and not with tax
dollars.
Click
here to read the rest of this
article.
Abortion debate once again puts burden on poor
women
Matters of social
ethics, especially when tainted by religion, often finds matters
of substance being sacrificed in the name of symbolism. This is
nowhere more true than in the matter of abortion which is back
on the public stage once again through health care reform. No
one is actually "pro-abortion" though most people in the Western
world believe that every woman should have the right to make
decisions about her own reproductive life.
Click
here to read the rest of this
article.
