by Allie Martin, Bill Fancher, and Robin Burchfield
(AgapePress) – Officials in the Bush Administration are defending a fundamental change in how the federal government approaches issues involving reproductive health.
The administration is scaling back efforts promoting “family planning” and contraception while aggressively promoting abstinence-only programs. Since he became President, Bush and top aides have re-imposed a ban on abortion counseling at overseas health clinics and refused to allow states to expand family planning services for poor women.
Critics say the policy changes are based more on ideology than science. But administration officials defend their approach, saying the President is committed to reducing teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
According to The Washington Post, the new strategy is aimed at correcting the previous administration's policies, which Bush officials say were skewed too far to the left.
That skewed strategy has Physicians Consortium director Dr. John Diggs believing the current epidemic of STDs is partially the fault of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diggs says the CDC's refusal to release scientific information that condoms did not help in the spread of most STDs is shocking.
“The report that was just released is not the result of new research. It is simply the result of reviewing research which has already been extant,” Diggs says. “Now that's all it takes — it does not take the power of a law. But apparently in the case of the head of the CDC, it does require law. For this reason, the Physicians Consortium stands behind calling for the resignation of [CDC director] Dr. [Jeffery] Koplan.”
The research data on the ineffectiveness of condoms was withheld by the CDC for more than a decade. Meanwhile, the Center continued to promote the “safe sex” idea that condoms would prevent such diseases.
Pro-family groups such as Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and the American Family Association are also calling for Koplan's resignation.
Abstinence in Africa
While the Bush Administration appears to be throwing its support behind abstinence-only programs in the U.S., Christian workers across Africa are spreading the message of abstinence to fight an epidemic that has claimed 13 million Africans. Sharon Pumpelly, an International Mission Board worker in Nairobi, believes one generation could end AIDS. So, in 1993, she — along with other Christian missionaries and their African co-workers — created a “True Love Waits” sexual abstinence program for African youth.
In 1994, Pumpelly shared the philosophy and program with the First Lady of Uganda. She, in turn, supported the team's efforts to promote the campaign and even hosted a program that informed government leaders, heads of schools, and church leaders about the philosophy.
While the campaign has seen dramatic effects, those who work with True Love Waits say they it is still a battle to teach abstinence in a culture that promotes sexual promiscuity. A local pastor says the culture teaches the girls to be dependent on men, but that they need to be taught how to take care of themselves and about their own value.
Pumpelly notes, “If nobody teaches them or challenges them, then how can they rise to God's best and God's blessing for them? God blesses the nation whose people follow His ways.”
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
