Jen Heitel Yakush's blog

The concept of conscience has been repeatedly manipulated, especially in the context of reproductive health and rights. While some have pointed to Catholic teaching to support the imposition of ever-more restrictive refusal clauses, they do not, reflect the Catholic position.

The rights to love, marry, and form a family unit are fundamental human rights. But the current marriage-promotion initiatives, carried out with enthusiasm by the Bush administration, exclusively promote heterosexual marriage.

Jen Heitel Yakush is Public Policy Associate at SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the Untied States

In early June 2006, just over 200 organizations launched No More Money in an effort to stop funding for harmful and ideologically driven abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The list of supporting organizations, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, has now reached close to 300 and ranges from HIV/AIDS organizations to pro-choice organizations, from organizations committed to GLBT rights to organizations committed to disability rights, and from education organizations to medical, scientific, and public health organizations. The Campaign exists because over $1 billion has thus far been spent on these programs. The medical community has never supported these programs and polling consistently shows that the American public agrees that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are failing our nation's young people and that government funding spent on these ideologically driven programs is a waste of valuable resources and the wrong direction for health education.