House Republicans released a budget proposal this week that would eliminate Title X funding — which provides funding to Planned Parenthood for contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs — an act pro-abortion advocate immediately characterized as an attack against women.
If GOP leaders think they can cut 4.6 m Americans' access to care without one hell of a fight, they've got another thing coming. #SaveTitleX
The House Appropriations Committee’s draft of its fiscal year 2016 Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS) funding bill “eliminates all funding for the controversial Family Planning Program, saving taxpayers nearly $300 million.” The bill would also substantially cut so-called “comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention programs,” but double funding for abstinence-centered or Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) programs.
The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) found that the SRA approach is effective, supported by both parents and an increasing number of teens, and consistent with other public health initiatives for teens such as anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-drug, and anti-violence programs that have also been effective.
“Largely misrepresented, SRA education is more than just about saying ‘no,’” says NAEA. “Abstinence-centered and holistic, the SRA strategy offers skill-building topics such as goal setting and future orientation, healthy decision making, building assets, avoiding negative peer pressure, and human development.”
The sexual risk reduction (SRR) model, however, NAEA states, “is built on the premise that teens either cannot, or will not, abstain from sex; therefore they must learn to take ‘precautions’ that will decrease their risk of becoming pregnant,” or becoming infected with an STD.
