The Oakland-based Welfare Radio Collaborative asks: "The Bush Administration's Healthy Marriage Initiative: a solution to poverty or a paternalistic policy aimed at regulating the sexual and reproductive lives of low income women, especially women of color?" They produced this audio documentary, which reminds people about Bush's policies that target poor women. This legislation, which has wide bi-partisan support, was introduced as part of the Welfare reauthorization legislation which is currently two years overdue, and now extended until after the election.

The Bush administration is promoting marriage to low income women as a solution to poverty. The 2002 Healthy Marriage Initiative seeks to spend 1.5 billion dollars promoting marriage through welfare, by offering marriage "education" classes, targetting low income neighborhood schools, funding faith-based organizations to provide counseling, putting up billboards in poorer neighborhoods, and funding research about marriage. Although there are no laws that fund marriage, the current Health and Human Services Department is funding marriage anyway, with money earmarked for other programs. The government insists on moving forward with these activities in spite of protests from women on welfare, feminist economists, social policy experts, domestic violence counselors, and others who say the government has no business telling low income women to get married. Read more, and listen to the documentary