NARAL Push Congress to De-Fund Abstinence Ed

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The prominent pro-abortion group NARAL has asked members of Congress to eliminate funding for abstinence education programs in the FY 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. NARAL president Nancy Keenan sent a letter to pro-abortion Rep. Paul Hodes, a New Hampshire Democrat, last week urging him and his colleagues to press for eliminating or cutting the funding further beyond the cuts the pro-abortion Congress made to abstinence previously. “I thank Rep. Hodes for taking the lead and answering the public's call to move away from the failed Bush-backed 'abstinence-only' policies that have put our teens at risk," Keenan claimed. "For eight long years, President Bush and his anti-choice allies in Congress pushed hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into [abstinence education programs].” Meanwhile, Hodes sent his own letter to members of Congress asking them to eliminate funding for the Community-Based Abstinence Education program. CBAE is one of three separate programs that provides abstinence education funds for programs that have been proven to help teenagers make healthy choices. Reps. Lois Capps (D-CA), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Jane Harman (D-CA), and Diana DeGette (D-CO) were among the pro-abortion lawmakers signing on to the letter. The new omnibus spending bill that Congress recently approved and President Barack Obama signed, cut total funding for abstinence education by $14.2 million compared with the previous year. It also cuts abstinence education funding by $42 million compared to what President Bush had asked for in his last months of office. The cuts are seen as the first step by abortion advocates in Congress to zero out all abstinence education funds through the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program, the Adolescent Family Life Act, and through Title V. Democrats cut the CBAE budget by 13%, leaving only $95 million to fund national programs to help teenagers make healthy choices for a positive lifestyle.