For Related Topics See:
Americas
Front Page
< < Back to Start of Article Family Planning Programs Shift Their Focus
WASHINGTON The Bush administration is making a fundamental change in the way the federal government approaches issues involving reproductive health, scaling back efforts to promote family planning and contraception while aggressively promoting "abstinence-only" programs. Since taking office, President George W. Bush and his top aides have refused to allow two states to expand family planning services for poor women, reimposed a ban on abortion counseling at health clinics abroad, released a report questioning the effectiveness of condoms and proposed eliminating contraceptive coverage for federal workers.
.
At the same time, administration officials are considering plans to consolidate women's health offices and have moved swiftly to boost funding for "abstinence-only" sexual education programs, with the money often going to evangelical Christian groups.
.
Public health experts inside and outside the federal government are becoming increasingly concerned that the emerging approach is based more on ideology than science, and that the changes might reverse recent successes in reducing adolescent pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
.
"At each instance," said Judith Lichtman, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, Mr. Bush "has chosen to act not in a moderate way but in an extreme way." Administration officials said the president was committed to reducing adolescent pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and to broadening access to medical care. The new tack is more practical, officials said, and is aimed at correcting the Clinton administration's policies, which they said were skewed too far to the left.
.
"If Planned Parenthood wanted it, the previous administration favored it," the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said.
.
Last week, Representative James Greenwood, a Pennsylvania Republican, complained to the secretary of health and human services, Tommy Thompson, and the White House counselor, Karl Rove, about proposed changes in the Medicaid program to designate the fetus as a person while simultaneously rejecting requests to broaden family planning. "There's no question that religious conservatives have a very significant impact on this administration," Mr. Greenwood said.
.
Most of the controversy has emanated from the Department of Health and Human Services, described as "ground zero for the ideological wars in this country" by Kevin Keane, Mr. Thompson's top political strategist.
.
Dennis Smith, a former Reagan administration official who worked to prevent health providers from offering abortion counseling, designed the proposal to guarantee Medicaid coverage for fetuses. Department spokesmen said the goal was to expand prenatal care for poor women, but public health experts, noting that there were other ways to accomplish that, described the proposal as a backdoor attempt by anti-abortion activists to establish a legal precedent protecting the fetus.
.
Mr. Smith was also largely responsible for a new policy at the department under which requests from Georgia and New York to provide family planning to more poor women were rejected.
.
Last week, officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health tried in vain to block the release of a report that concluded there was "insufficient evidence" that condoms prevented most sexually transmitted infections. Health care providers warned that the report was dangerously misleading. Although condoms might not protect against certain infections that can be transmitted through the skin, they protect against diseases spread through bodily fluids, said Dr. Bernadine Healy, who headed the National Institutes of Health in the administration of Mr. Bush's father.
.
In February 2000, a group named Advocates for Youth developed a package of videos and pamphlets guiding parents on how to discuss sexual health with their children. The Centers for Disease Control paid the group $200,000 for the materials, which were to be offered through its Business Responds to AIDS program.
.
After the materials were forwarded in the autumn to the Department of Health and Human Services, a career civil servant named Boyd Work, a Roman Catholic deacon, detailed his objections in an electronic message.
.
"You should know that the secretary is a devout Roman Catholic," Mr. Work wrote, and then asked, "Do you think he'll buy off on the nature and scope of the content? Advocates for Youth, on their Web site and in their press releases, are ardent critics of the Bush administration. Mmmm."
.
On Friday, Mr. Keane said the message was withdrawn and he would review the materials. Mr. Thompson "is not an ideologue, he's a pragmatist," the political adviser said.
.
Mr. Keane and other administration officials did not dispute the new emphasis on abstinence education, despite limited data on whether the approach is effective. The last administration was "slanted toward other options, like condoms," he said. "Abstinence hasn't been given the same level of attention. That's our goal." Family Planning Programs Shift Their Focus
WASHINGTON The Bush administration is making a fundamental change in the way the federal government approaches issues involving reproductive health, scaling back efforts to promote family planning and contraception while aggressively promoting "abstinence-only" programs. Since taking office, President George W. Bush and his top aides have refused to allow two states to expand family planning services for poor women, reimposed a ban on abortion counseling at health clinics abroad, released a report questioning the effectiveness of condoms and proposed eliminating contraceptive coverage for federal workers.
.
At the same time, administration officials are considering plans to consolidate women's health offices and have moved swiftly to boost funding for "abstinence-only" sexual education programs, with the money often going to evangelical Christian groups.
.
Public health experts inside and outside the federal government are becoming increasingly concerned that the emerging approach is based more on ideology than science, and that the changes might reverse recent successes in reducing adolescent pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
.
"At each instance," said Judith Lichtman, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, Mr. Bush "has chosen to act not in a moderate way but in an extreme way." Administration officials said the president was committed to reducing adolescent pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and to broadening access to medical care. The new tack is more practical, officials said, and is aimed at correcting the Clinton administration's policies, which they said were skewed too far to the left.
.
"If Planned Parenthood wanted it, the previous administration favored it," the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said.
.
Last week, Representative James Greenwood, a Pennsylvania Republican, complained to the secretary of health and human services, Tommy Thompson, and the White House counselor, Karl Rove, about proposed changes in the Medicaid program to designate the fetus as a person while simultaneously rejecting requests to broaden family planning. "There's no question that religious conservatives have a very significant impact on this administration," Mr. Greenwood said.
.
Most of the controversy has emanated from the Department of Health and Human Services, described as "ground zero for the ideological wars in this country" by Kevin Keane, Mr. Thompson's top political strategist.
.
Dennis Smith, a former Reagan administration official who worked to prevent health providers from offering abortion counseling, designed the proposal to guarantee Medicaid coverage for fetuses. Department spokesmen said the goal was to expand prenatal care for poor women, but public health experts, noting that there were other ways to accomplish that, described the proposal as a backdoor attempt by anti-abortion activists to establish a legal precedent protecting the fetus.
.
Mr. Smith was also largely responsible for a new policy at the department under which requests from Georgia and New York to provide family planning to more poor women were rejected.
.
Last week, officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health tried in vain to block the release of a report that concluded there was "insufficient evidence" that condoms prevented most sexually transmitted infections. Health care providers warned that the report was dangerously misleading. Although condoms might not protect against certain infections that can be transmitted through the skin, they protect against diseases spread through bodily fluids, said Dr. Bernadine Healy, who headed the National Institutes of Health in the administration of Mr. Bush's father.
.
In February 2000, a group named Advocates for Youth developed a package of videos and pamphlets guiding parents on how to discuss sexual health with their children. The Centers for Disease Control paid the group $200,000 for the materials, which were to be offered through its Business Responds to AIDS program.
.
After the materials were forwarded in the autumn to the Department of Health and Human Services, a career civil servant named Boyd Work, a Roman Catholic deacon, detailed his objections in an electronic message.
.
"You should know that the secretary is a devout Roman Catholic," Mr. Work wrote, and then asked, "Do you think he'll buy off on the nature and scope of the content? Advocates for Youth, on their Web site and in their press releases, are ardent critics of the Bush administration. Mmmm."
.
On Friday, Mr. Keane said the message was withdrawn and he would review the materials. Mr. Thompson "is not an ideologue, he's a pragmatist," the political adviser said.
.
Mr. Keane and other administration officials did not dispute the new emphasis on abstinence education, despite limited data on whether the approach is effective. The last administration was "slanted toward other options, like condoms," he said. "Abstinence hasn't been given the same level of attention. That's our goal." Family Planning Programs Shift Their Focus
WASHINGTON The Bush administration is making a fundamental change in the way the federal government approaches issues involving reproductive health, scaling back efforts to promote family planning and contraception while aggressively promoting "abstinence-only" programs. Since taking office, President George W. Bush and his top aides have refused to allow two states to expand family planning services for poor women, reimposed a ban on abortion counseling at health clinics abroad, released a report questioning the effectiveness of condoms and proposed eliminating contraceptive coverage for federal workers.
.
At the same time, administration officials are considering plans to consolidate women's health offices and have moved swiftly to boost funding for "abstinence-only" sexual education programs, with the money often going to evangelical Christian groups. |
