Roundup: US Funding of UNFPA Could Represent Ten Percent of Agency Budget

US support for UNFPA would make significant difference to agency budget; Steven Waldman doesn't get it on the stimulus and family planning; American teens have not "gone wild;" Catholic church trumps up fears over FOCA.

US Support for UNFPA Would Make Significant Difference to Agency Budget
When the US reinstates funding for UNFPA, as President Obama
pledged to do last Friday, US funding could make up 10% of the agency’s
budget, Reuters reports
UNFPA executive director Thoraya Obaid told Reuters "that discussions in the
U.S. Congress for proposed funding to UNFPA
ranged between $40 million and $60 million per year. The agency has a
core budget of some $430 million and the largest contributor since the
United States stopped funding has been the Netherlands."  Reuters
points out that of all the Millennium Development Goals, promoting
maternal health has made the least progress, and UNFPA is critical to
cutting maternal mortality.

Waldman Gets It Wrong on Contraceptives and the Stimulus
Forgive me if I’m not content with Steven Waldman’s analysis of the role of family planning in the stimulus just because he criticized Republicans twice and Democrats only once. Waldman rightly calls out the Republicans for massively exaggerating the amount to be spent on family planning, and for their conflation of abortion and contraception.  But Waldman also considers Democratic support (what there was of it) for the contraceptive provision to be a "we won; get used to it" approach, rather than a sensible way to repair the health care safety net for low-income women and families and something that has nothing to do with abortion aside from reducing unintended pregnancies, and therefore should be welcomed as a principled example of building common ground.

Related — a Media Matters study found that many in the media equated Pelosi’s defense of family planning provision in recovery package to China’s
"one-child policy," eugenics, Nazism.

American Teens Have Not "Gone Wild"
Teens aren’t having sex at higher rates than in generations past —
in fact, the percentage of high school students who have had sex has
dropped, the New York Times reports.

“There’s no doubt that the public perception is that things
are getting worse, and that kids are having sex younger and are much
wilder than they ever were,” said Kathleen A. Bogle, an assistant
professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University.
“But when you look at the data, that’s not the case.” 

And what about that oral sex epidemic? 

As for that supposed epidemic of oral sex, especially among younger
teenagers: national statistics on the behavior have only recently been
collected, and they are not as alarming as some reports would have you
believe. About 16 percent of teenagers say they have had oral sex but
haven’t yet had intercourse. Researchers say children’s more relaxed
attitude about oral sex probably reflects a similar change among adults
since the 1950s. In addition, some teenagers may view oral sex as
“safer,” since unplanned pregnancy is not an issue.

 

Catholic Churches Trump Up Fears over FOCA

Churchgoing Catholics are being told that Catholic hospitals would
close if the Freedom of Choice Act passes, on the grounds that Catholic
hospitals would rather close than perform abortions, reports CBS News:

Catholic groups are now making a push to drum up opposition to FOCA,
with millions of postcards being distributed in English and Spanish in
churches across the country, according to Deirdre McQuade, an assistant
director for policy and communications at the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops.

Would FOCA really invalidate conscience protections and force hospitals to offer abortion care?  When we last investigated this question, National Women’s Law Center’s Jill Morrison told me unequivocally no. Federal conscience
clause law
, such as the Church Amendment, states
that simply receiving public funding does not turn a hospital into a
"state actor," Morrison explains.  "FOCA must be read consistently
with existing federal law, unless the new law explicitly provides that
it is intended to repeal existing law."

CBS News talked to Ted Miller, communications director at NARAL Pro-Choice America:

According to Ted Miller…Maryland is among the states that have adopted
FOCA-like legislation in an effort to codify abortion protections, "and
you don’t see Catholic hospitals closing in Maryland."

Other News to Note
Jan 27: Newsweek: Pro-Lifers In Obamaland

Jan 27: Michelle Malkin blog: Obama nominee: Taxpayer-funded abortion
is a free speech right

Jan 27: ABC News: First the Affair, Then Paternity Test, Then Abortion?
Concerns Grow in the U.K. That the Rise in Prenatal Paternity Tests
Leads to Abortions

Jan 27: SF Weekly: USF Realizes Its Student Insurance Covered
Abortions — and Aborts It

Jan 27: WISC-TV: Groups Deliver Petitions Against Proposed Abortion
Clinic: Madison Clinic Would Be Joint Venture Between UW, Meriter
Hospitals

Jan 27: The Bulletin: Pro-Life Activists Pray For Sestak’s Conversion

Jan 27: Life News: Massachusetts Abortion Buffer Zone Subject of
Appeal From Pro-Life Attorneys

Jan 27: Life News: White House Sacks Pro-Life USAID Admin, Prepares
Obama’s Pro-Abortion Policy

Jan 27: Catholic University Blogs: Reducing Abortion is, at the
Moment, the Moral Position for the Pro-Life Community, Says CUA
Professor

Jan 27: Washington City Paper: Notes from the pro-Life Underground