[July 31, 2009]
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its fiscal year 2010 spending bill (HR 3293) for health, education and labor programs, CQ Today reports. The bill does not include funding for abstinence-only sex education, instead providing $104.5 million for a comprehensive "Teen Pregnancy Prevention" program. The recently passed House version of the bill takes a similar approach, according to CQ Today.
The committee voted 29-1 to approve the $730 billion bill, with abstinence-only advocate Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) being the sole opponent (Wolfe, CQ Today, 7/30).
In related news, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in the FY 2010 spending bill did not request funding for abstinence-only sex education programs in his home state, despite routinely requesting such funds as a Republican, CQ Politics reports.
When he was a Republican, Specter sponsored 22 earmarks totaling $550,000 for abstinence-only programs in the FY 2009 version of the bill. Specter's aides said that he wanted to focus earmark requests on hospitals and universities in the FY 2010 version of the bill. However, the "likely" explanation for the absence of abstinence-only earmark requests is the senator's 2009 switch to the Democratic Party, which often advocates for comprehensive sex education programs as a way to reduce teen pregnancy, CQ Politics reports (Clarke, CQ Politics, 7/29).
The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
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