Fri: Demand a Hearing to Review Abstinence-Only

found this on craigslist

>>The following post from The Sexuality Information and Education Council of
>>the United States is in regards to an organizational sign-on letter
>>asking for a
>>hearing to fully investigate abstinence-only programs. Your organization
>>needs to sign on by close of business Friday the 17th ---- yes, tomorrow. So,
>>please, give this a read and act quickly!
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>Dear Colleagues,
>>
>>Please find below (and/or attached) a sign-on letter to Republican and
>>Democratic leadership in the House and Senate asking for a hearing to
>>fully investigate the issues raised in the recent report on
>>abstinence-only-until-marriage programs prepared for Congressman Henry
>>Waxman. (To see the report, go to
>>http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20041201102153-50247.pdf)
>>
>>The letter has been a collaborative one and reflects the comments and
>>edits of more than a half dozen colleague organizations. Additionally,
>>we have coordinated this letter with on-going efforts on the Hill to
>>move this issue forward.
>>
>>We hope your organization can sign-on to this important letter. We also
>>hope you will encourage and solicit the sign-ons of colleague
>>organizations of every stripe and every locale. Only organizational
>>sign-ons are being accepted for this letter. We urge individuals to
>>voice their own concerns via the "Take Action" function of the No New
>>Money website at http://www.nonewmoney.org <http://www.nonewmoney.org/>
>>
>>Deadline for sign-ons is Close of Business on Friday the 17th of
>>December.
>>
>>Please respond to Laura Fenimore at SIECUS' DC Office at
>>lfenimore [at] siecusdc.org or by phone at 202-265-2405.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Bill
>>William A. Smith
>>Vice President for Public Policy
>>The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
>>(SIECUS)
>>1706 R St NW
>>Washington, DC 20009
>>202-265-2405 Voice
>>202-462-2340 Fax
>>
>>__________________ Text of Letter Below
>>
>>
>>December 13, 2004
>>
>>Dear [Senators/Representatives],
>>
>>We, the undersigned, are writing to express our support for United
>>States Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's statement on December 5 on
>>This Week with George Stephanopoulos. During this appearance, Majority
>>Leader Frist affirmed that it is the responsibility of the United States
>>government to ensure that all federally funded
>>abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are fully reviewed. This
>>discussion arose from the egregious errors and inaccuracies uncovered in
>>these programs in a recent report prepared for Congressman Henry Waxman.
>>
>>The report, titled The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only
>>Education Programs, found that "over 80% of the abstinence-only
>>curricula, used by over two-thirds of SPRANS grantees in 2003, contain
>>false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health."
>>Examples of these false, misleading, or distorted statements include:
>>
>>* "Exposure to sweat and tears [are] risk factors for HIV
>>transmission;"
>>* "[I]n heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV
>>approximately 31% of the time;"
>>* "Women gauge their happiness and judge their success on their
>>relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their
>>accomplishments;"
>>* "A pregnancy occurs one out of every seven times that couples
>>use condoms;" and
>>* Instructing students that sexually-transmitted chlamydia may
>>cause heart attacks and strokes.[1]
>>
>>Yet, as a nation, we have renewed and expanded investment in these
>>curricula by allocating more than $168 million in FY 2005 into three
>>separate funding streams[2] for domestic abstinence-only-until-marriage
>>programs, an increase of $30 million from FY 2004. Funding for the
>>programming of SPRANS-CBAE grantees, which the recent report
>>specifically examined, has nearly quadrupled in four years increasing
>>from $20 million in FY 2001 to $75 million in FY 2004.
>>
>>
>>Similar types of programs are also now being exported internationally
>>through the US global AIDS program, formally known as The President's
>>Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In sub-Saharan Africa, where
>>80 percent of new infections are transmitted through unprotected sex,
>>field-tested, evidence-based programs are an essential tool to save the
>>lives of millions at risk of HIV infection. Yet under PEPFAR, at least
>>one-third of all prevention dollars-and a much higher share of funds for
>>prevention of sexual transmission-are now going to fund
>>abstinence-until-marriage programs in 15 countries in Africa, the
>>Caribbean as well as in Vietnam. As stated by Senate Majority Leader
>>Frist on This Week on December 5, HIV/AIDS is "one of the great moral
>>and public health tragedies of the last 100 years." With a crisis so
>>great, we have a moral obligation to make sure our funded programs in
>>these 15 countries are using medically accurate information based on
>>public health standards.
>>
>>
>>On a separate matter, lax oversight of these programs has also resulted
>>in US taxpayer dollars being used to promote religion in federally
>>funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the state of
>>Louisiana. Two years after a US District Judge found that there was a
>>constitutional violation and a settlement was reached, that program was
>>still promoting religion. In one example, young people asking about the
>>decision to take a virginity pledge were told that "God will help you to
>>explain what you mean...He will provide the words, if you let
>>Him...please know that God is standing beside you the whole way. Have
>>courage and answer the question as God wants you to."
>>
>>For these reasons, we respectfully request that the [Senate/House]
>>leadership call a hearing to fully review the content of
>>abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
>>
>>
>>Sincerely,
>>
>>
>>________________________________
>>
>>[1] The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Eudcation Programs,
>>prepared for Representative Henry A. Waxman, U.S. House of
>>Representatives Committee on Government Reform-Minority Staff Special
>>Investigations Division (December 2004), accessed on 10 December 2004,
>><
>>http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20041201102153-50247.pdf
>> >.
>>
>>[2] The three federal funding streams are Special Projects of Regional
>>and National Significance-Community Based Abstinence Education
>>(SPRANS-CBAE); Title V Section 501(b) of the Social Security Act,
>>authorized with the 1996 Welfare Reform Law; and the Adolescent Family
>>Life Act (Title XX of the Public Health Service Act).