NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA CALLS ON CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP TO FIX PROBLEMS WITH SPENDING BILLS
Washington, D.C. – Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said her organization is mobilizing its grassroots activists to take action on two House spending bills that include funding for domestic and international health priorities. "We are telling our members that there is good news and bad news in these bills," Keenan said. "We thank the congressional leadership and committee champions for the long-overdue increase in funding for domestic family-planning programs, but there are other problems in the legislation that need attention. As currently written, the health spending bill includes an unacceptable increase for discredited Bush-backed 'abstinence-only' programs, and the foreign-aid bill includes no provision to restore funding for the U.N. family-planning program. This new Congress shouldn't repeat the mistakes of the previous anti-choice Congresses. That's not what the public wants or expects." Specifically, the two bills, which fund domestic and international health programs, reportedly include a long-overdue increase of $27 million - about a 10-percent raise - for the nation's family-planning program, known as Title X. President Bush has tried to level-fund this program for the last six years - and under anti-choice control, Congress usually followed his lead. Unfortunately, the House bill also includes a reported $27 million increase in funds for discredited "abstinence-only" programs. "As a former teacher and state superintendent of education, I am at a loss for why this new Congress would force taxpayers to pay for scientifically inaccurate and ineffective programs that mislead young people," Keenan said. "Report after report has shown that these programs do not work, contain medically inaccurate information, and have no positive effect on persuading teens to remain abstinent." On the international side, the House bill includes a partial repeal of the global gag rule - but then fails to re-fund the United Nation’s family-planning program. This program subsidizes birth control and other reproductive-health services (not abortion) to the world's poorest women. The Bush White House has unilaterally cancelled these funds for the last five years. Contact: Ted Miller, 202.973.3032 ###
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