Thursday, July 07, 2005

1235 Is this the government?

Today I read an article in an OB/Gyn on-line magazine about how the Bush administration was moving aggressively to stop a woman's right to choose (i.e., to abort) through ideology and pseudoscience. I read through the article and found very little about the current administration, but a lot about what states are doing--and have been doing since before Bush I. Then I started looking at the references mentioned as "government reports." So I followed up on one that was prepared by the staff of Rep. Henry Waxman about why abstinence education was a bad idea. Here's his record:

Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)
Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)
Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003)
Voted NO on funding for health providers who don't provide abortion info. (Sep 2002)
Voted NO on banning human cloning, including medical research. (Jul 2001)
Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)

This report was about what was wrong with the abstinence curricula offered in some high schools. Most of the sentences were "one curriculum. . ." did this or that wrong. With Waxman's record (100% rating by NARAL), I can't imagine that his staff would prepare anything other than a negative report on a program supported by President Bush. All curricula from math to physics to health have errors. None worse probably than the sex ed courses. . . but Waxman's staff probably didn't look at those.

So why is this considered a "government" report?

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