The Wonk Room

McCain: ‘I Don’t Know’ About Contraceptives»

Earlier, ThinkProgress noted Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) nervous reply to a question about why his top adviser erroneously suggested that he supported requiring insurance companies to cover prescription birth control. Looking confused, McCain replied:

I’ll look at my voting record on it … I’ll be glad to look at it and get back to you as to why … I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I don’t recall the vote, I’ve cast thousands of votes in the Senate.

Watch It:

Don’t expect McCain to “get back to you” anytime soon. In 2007, McCain similarly admitted to reporters that he was “not informed” about “whether I support government funding for them [contraceptives] or not,” and promised to “find out.” In the same interview McCain also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of condoms:

More questions: Do condoms stop sexually transmitted disease?

A long pause.

A stern look.

“I’ve never gotten into these issues or thought much about them,” he said, almost crying uncle.

McCain’s unfamiliarity with contraceptives has caused him to support regressive reproductive policies. McCain voted against requiring insurance companies to cover prescription contraception in both 2003 and 2005 and has consistently opposed expanding access to contraception. In fact, according to NARAL, McCain “has never cosponsored or supported legislation that would prevent unintended pregnancy or reduce the need for abortion“:

- Voted to “terminate the Title X family-planning program, which provides millions of women with health care services ranging from birth control to breast cancer screenings.”

- Voted in favor of “the domestic gag rule, which would have prohibited federally funded family-planning clinics from providing women with access to full information about their reproductive-health options.”

- Voted for an “amendment to prohibit distribution of condoms, contraceptives or drugs financed by federal aid without parental consent.”

- Voted to establish an “abstinence-only” program “that censors information about birth control.”

Vitter - The Only Senator Opposing Removal Of HIV Travel Ban»

The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan is reporting that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), a former client of the DC Madam, “is the only Senator opposing the removal of the HIV travel and immigration ban” from the Senate version of a bill extending PEPFAR, the international health initiative dedicated to combating HIV/AIDS around the world. On Wednesday, in an editorial in the Washington times, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) penned an editorial underlining the importance of lifting the travel restriction:

Today, HIV is the only medical condition that renders people inadmissible to the United States. In fact, we are just one of 12 countries that prohibit, almost without exception, HIV-positive non-citizens from entering the country (China has recently overturned its ban). This policy places the United States in the same company as Sudan, Russia, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Vitter is happy to keep such company. In fact, the Senator, who himself engaged in behavior that could have placed him and his wife in danger of contracting HIV, has promoted policies that increase the likelihood that people will become infected with HIV:

- Voted in support of the “prostitution pledge” in PEPFAR which creates obstacles to reaching and serving sex workers.

- Attempted to amend PEPFAR “to reinsert the 33 percent abstinence-only earmark.”

Vitter has a long history of promoting failed abstinence-only policies and supporting legislation that undermines people’s sexual health and equal rights. Recently, Vitter, along with fellow disgraced Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), signed up to co-sponsor S.J. Res. 43, the Marriage Protection Amendment. If passed, the bill would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”

Requirements In Global AIDS Initiative Cost Lives»

This morning, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice called on Congress to remove “language restricting the participation of family planning organizations” from the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief or PEPFAR, an international health initiative dedicated to combating HIV/AIDS around the world:

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and our partners in the interfaith community are urging the Senate to hear the voices of people of faith…we want PEPFAR to be reauthorized and we welcome the increased funds — but we want language restricting the participation of family planning organizations to be removed.

Competing House and Senate versions of the bill to expand PEPFAR both seek to boost funding to $50 billion over the next five years. While the House version allows “groups to use PEPFAR funding for HIV testing and education in family planning clinics,” the bill expands the global gag rule, and does not extend PEPFAR funding “for contraception.”

Under the House legislation, family-planning services that accept funding through PEPFAR would be restricted in two ways. First, PEPFAR funding would impose a gag-rule to prohibit family planning initiatives from using their own funds for performing or promoting abortion. Secondly, PEPFAR-funded programs would not be allowed to use PEPFAR funds on family planning services.

Both versions also replace the current earmark requiring 33% of prevention funds to be spent on abstinence only programs with a provision that obliges “the Global AIDS Coordinator [to] report to Congress if less than 50% of funding to prevent sexual transmission of HIV is spent on abstinence and fidelity programs.” Read the rest of this entry »

House Continues to Fund Bush’s Failed Abstinence-Only Programs»

On Thursday, the House of Representatives “approved a supplemental war funding package along with a domestic funding package” that did not restore a provision that would have allowed “pharmaceutical companies to sell deeply discounted birth control products to college health centers and certain family planning clinics.”

While President Bush is rumored to have issued a veto threat, Congress was ultimately responsible for the capitulation. In fact, rather than making contraceptives more accessible, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, “voted to continue funding the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program,” an abstinence-only initiative which “bypasses the state approval process (Title V money) and gives federal monies directly to abstinence-only programs. ”

According to health officials who testified before Congress in April 2008, abstinence-only initiatives have “had no positive effect on high school students, and may be a factor in the high rates of sexually-transmitted disease in teens.” In fact, “seventeen states have now refused Title V money, largely because of the failures of abstinence-only programs” and statistics suggest that these initiatives have contributed to the increase in the number of STD infections and unwanted pregnancies:

- A Centers for Disease Control report released in March 2008 found that “one in four sexually active American girls between the ages of fourteen and nineteen had one of four monitored sexually-transmitted diseases: human papillomavirus (HPV), herpes, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis (a parasite).”

- A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released in December 2007 “showed the rate of births to teenagers rose by 3% last year” in 2006.

- According to data compiled by Avert, an international AIDS charity, syphilis rates increased by 11 percent between 2001 and 2006, while the rates of chlamydia infection increased by 27 percent.

Unfortunately, despite such overwhelming evidence, Congress continues to waste money and mislead the nation’s teens.

McCain Hates Condoms»

Since an “accidental rewording” in the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 removed a provision which allowed family-planning clinics “to purchase contraceptives at deeply discounted rates,” college students and other low-income Americans have faced steep increases in birth control prices.

This morning, Dian Harrison, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, called on Congress to ensure that women have access to affordable contraceptives:

It’s time to take action and urge our members of Congress to restore affordable birth control prices to college health centers and other trusted family planning providers. Birth control is basic health care; therefore, a woman’s option to use contraception to prevent an unintended pregnancy should not be based on her socio-economic status.

But don’t count on Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to act any time soon. In March 2007, the senator displayed ignorance about birth-control issues, even asking an aid to “find out what my position is on contraception”:

I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception — I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.

Indeed, like on most major issues, McCain mirrors Bush on contraception. While McCain wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and move towards ending “abortion at the state level,” he has “never cosponsored or supported legislation that would prevent unintended pregnancy or reduce the need for abortion.”

To the contrary, McCain “opposed government financing of condom distribution” and has strongly supported abstinence-only education:

- Voted to end “the Title X family planning program, credited with helping prevent over 9 million abortions.”

- Voted against funding teen‐pregnancy‐prevention programs and ensuring that “abstinence‐only” programs are medically accurate.

- Voted for the domestic gag rule, which would have prohibited federally funded family‐planning clinics from providing women with access to full information about their reproductive‐health options.

- Voted to take $75 million from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant to establish a new “abstinence‐only” program that censors information about birth control.

- Declined to help reduce the need for abortion and improve maternal health by opposing effort to require insurance coverage for prescription birth control, improve access to emergency contraception, and provide more women with prenatal health care.

- Voted against legislation that would have prevented unintended pregnancy by investing in insurance coverage for prescription birth control, promoting family‐planning services, implementing teen‐pregnancy‐prevention programs, and developing programs to increase awareness about emergency contraception

Indeed, McCain is not what women want.