House Health Care Bill Provides Grants to Increase Teen Contraception Use
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks about
health care reform at Chinese Hospital in
San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009.
(AP Photo/Dino Vournas)
A provision in the recently passed House health care reform bill (H.R. 3962) creates a grant program to reward groups that promote contraceptive use among teens.
Known as the "Healthy Teen Initiative to Prevent Teen Pregnancy," the bill's provision creates a federal grant program that would use taxpayer dollars to fund "evidence based" programs that aim to reduce teen pregnancies.
"Amounts received by a State under this section shall be used to conduct or support evidence-based education programs (directly or through grants or contracts to public or private nonprofit entities, including schools and community-based and faith-based organizations) to reduce teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases," the bill reads.
For a program to qualify as "evidence-based" it must attempt to accomplish at least one of five different teen sexual education goals.
"In this section, the term 'evidence-based' means based on a model that has been found, in methodologically sound research – (1) to delay initiation of sex; (2) to decrease number of partners; (3) to reduce teen pregnancy; (4) to reduce sexually transmitted infection rates; or (5) to improve rates of contraceptive use."
Abstinence education or promotion programs are not considered to be "evidence-based" education programs by the government, and therefore would receive no funding through the bill, if it became law. However, programs that would "improve rates of contraceptive use" would be funded.
Shaun Kenney, executive director of the American Life League, said that efforts to "improve rates of contraceptive use" will lead to federal funding of abortion through abortifacient contraceptives, or drugs that kill a human embryo in order to prevent pregnancy.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, an abortifacient is "a substance or device used to induce abortion." This could include the RU-486 pill (mifepristone), which could be given to teen girls with federal funds, as well as the IUD.
"That's what it will accomplish," Kenney said of the House health care bill. "It's very broad term [contraceptive] and it includes quite a number of things, including chemical contraceptives, which are, in fact, abortifacients."
The bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, allows states to contract with "nonprofit entities," including "community-based" organizations – a provision Kenney explained meant that the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood could get federal funding to distribute abortifacients and teach teen girls sex education.
"There's a great deal of concern that organizations such as Planned Parenthood will receive even more money from the federal government on top of the federal and state subsidies they already receive."
Kenney also said that the omission of abstinence education from the list of "evidence-based" programs was yet more evidence of Congress' intent to rewrite sex education in the model of Planned Parenthood.
"It flies in the face of empirical data: that abstinence works," he said. "Let's be very honest, the programs are being pushed by Planned Parenthood and other [pro-abortion] organizations of their type."
Kenney said that Planned Parenthood's model of sex education was to promote more sex among teen girls, not less – a goal that seems to contradict the program's stated intention of reducing teen pregnancy.
"They're designed to promote more sex," Kenney said. "It's a game of Russian Roulette, where failed contraceptives mean more abortions, which means more profit for Planned Parenthood. That's the game."
Kenney also criticized fellow Catholic organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), for not speaking out about the potential for federally funded contraceptive-abortions created by this grant program. The USCCB had previously led the effort to secure passage of the Stupak-Pitts amendment to ban taxpayer-funding of any health care plan that covered abortion.
The amendment, written by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.), prohibits taxpayer money "to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage for abortion" except in the cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. The amendment passed on a bipartisan vote of 240 to 194.
However, contraceptive abortifacients, like surgical abortion, are also forbidden by the Catholic Church, a fact that Kenney said should have led the bishops to speak out.
According to section 2370 the Catechism of the Catholic Church, any act that seeks to render procreation impossible "is intrinsically evil," and section 2399 says that while regulation of births is "one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood," this does not mean that spouses may use "morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception)."
Further, the USCCB itself, relying on the Catechism and other official Church documents, says it is "now known that many devices and substances alleged to be "contraceptive" are in truth abortifacient (that is, they cause early abortions). Therefore, women's rights must be respected to know that many substances and devices, presented as means for preventing conception, have adverse effects on their health and/or are in truth abortifacients."
"Formal cooperation in the grave evil of contraceptive sterilization, either by approving or tolerating it for medical reason, is forbidden and totally alien to the mission entrusted by the Church to Catholic health care facilities," state the Catholic bishops.
"The PelosiCare bill, the House bill in and of itself, was destined to fail as of Friday of last week [Nov. 6]," said Kenney. "It was only due to the involvement of the National Right to Life Committee and the USCCB in getting the Stupak amendment passed that actually gave it new life and passed by the slim margin that it did."
"Unfortunately, we ended up passing that at the expense of all of these other provisions within the bill which actually set us back further and sets back the culture of life one more step," he said.
Kenney added that the USCCB should be equally forceful on pro-life issues as health reform efforts move through Congress as it was during debate in the House.
"The Pelosi health care bill is an abomination to begin with," said Kenney. "I don't think that there was any way to see a compromise and view it as good, not only for the pre-born but as a valid defense of Catholic social teaching. From start to finish the bill was bad and there's no amount of polishing it that's going to make it better."
Inquiries to the USCCB for comment were not returned as this story went to press.
Contact: Matt Cover
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: November 17, 2009
Link to this article.
Send this article to a friend.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks about
health care reform at Chinese Hospital in
San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009.
(AP Photo/Dino Vournas)
A provision in the recently passed House health care reform bill (H.R. 3962) creates a grant program to reward groups that promote contraceptive use among teens.
Known as the "Healthy Teen Initiative to Prevent Teen Pregnancy," the bill's provision creates a federal grant program that would use taxpayer dollars to fund "evidence based" programs that aim to reduce teen pregnancies.
"Amounts received by a State under this section shall be used to conduct or support evidence-based education programs (directly or through grants or contracts to public or private nonprofit entities, including schools and community-based and faith-based organizations) to reduce teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases," the bill reads.
For a program to qualify as "evidence-based" it must attempt to accomplish at least one of five different teen sexual education goals.
"In this section, the term 'evidence-based' means based on a model that has been found, in methodologically sound research – (1) to delay initiation of sex; (2) to decrease number of partners; (3) to reduce teen pregnancy; (4) to reduce sexually transmitted infection rates; or (5) to improve rates of contraceptive use."
Abstinence education or promotion programs are not considered to be "evidence-based" education programs by the government, and therefore would receive no funding through the bill, if it became law. However, programs that would "improve rates of contraceptive use" would be funded.
Shaun Kenney, executive director of the American Life League, said that efforts to "improve rates of contraceptive use" will lead to federal funding of abortion through abortifacient contraceptives, or drugs that kill a human embryo in order to prevent pregnancy.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, an abortifacient is "a substance or device used to induce abortion." This could include the RU-486 pill (mifepristone), which could be given to teen girls with federal funds, as well as the IUD.
"That's what it will accomplish," Kenney said of the House health care bill. "It's very broad term [contraceptive] and it includes quite a number of things, including chemical contraceptives, which are, in fact, abortifacients."
The bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, allows states to contract with "nonprofit entities," including "community-based" organizations – a provision Kenney explained meant that the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood could get federal funding to distribute abortifacients and teach teen girls sex education.
"There's a great deal of concern that organizations such as Planned Parenthood will receive even more money from the federal government on top of the federal and state subsidies they already receive."
Kenney also said that the omission of abstinence education from the list of "evidence-based" programs was yet more evidence of Congress' intent to rewrite sex education in the model of Planned Parenthood.
"It flies in the face of empirical data: that abstinence works," he said. "Let's be very honest, the programs are being pushed by Planned Parenthood and other [pro-abortion] organizations of their type."
Kenney said that Planned Parenthood's model of sex education was to promote more sex among teen girls, not less – a goal that seems to contradict the program's stated intention of reducing teen pregnancy.
"They're designed to promote more sex," Kenney said. "It's a game of Russian Roulette, where failed contraceptives mean more abortions, which means more profit for Planned Parenthood. That's the game."
Kenney also criticized fellow Catholic organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), for not speaking out about the potential for federally funded contraceptive-abortions created by this grant program. The USCCB had previously led the effort to secure passage of the Stupak-Pitts amendment to ban taxpayer-funding of any health care plan that covered abortion.
The amendment, written by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.), prohibits taxpayer money "to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage for abortion" except in the cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. The amendment passed on a bipartisan vote of 240 to 194.
However, contraceptive abortifacients, like surgical abortion, are also forbidden by the Catholic Church, a fact that Kenney said should have led the bishops to speak out.
According to section 2370 the Catechism of the Catholic Church, any act that seeks to render procreation impossible "is intrinsically evil," and section 2399 says that while regulation of births is "one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood," this does not mean that spouses may use "morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception)."
Further, the USCCB itself, relying on the Catechism and other official Church documents, says it is "now known that many devices and substances alleged to be "contraceptive" are in truth abortifacient (that is, they cause early abortions). Therefore, women's rights must be respected to know that many substances and devices, presented as means for preventing conception, have adverse effects on their health and/or are in truth abortifacients."
"Formal cooperation in the grave evil of contraceptive sterilization, either by approving or tolerating it for medical reason, is forbidden and totally alien to the mission entrusted by the Church to Catholic health care facilities," state the Catholic bishops.
"The PelosiCare bill, the House bill in and of itself, was destined to fail as of Friday of last week [Nov. 6]," said Kenney. "It was only due to the involvement of the National Right to Life Committee and the USCCB in getting the Stupak amendment passed that actually gave it new life and passed by the slim margin that it did."
"Unfortunately, we ended up passing that at the expense of all of these other provisions within the bill which actually set us back further and sets back the culture of life one more step," he said.
Kenney added that the USCCB should be equally forceful on pro-life issues as health reform efforts move through Congress as it was during debate in the House.
"The Pelosi health care bill is an abomination to begin with," said Kenney. "I don't think that there was any way to see a compromise and view it as good, not only for the pre-born but as a valid defense of Catholic social teaching. From start to finish the bill was bad and there's no amount of polishing it that's going to make it better."
Inquiries to the USCCB for comment were not returned as this story went to press.
Contact: Matt Cover
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: November 17, 2009
Link to this article.
Send this article to a friend.
