Thursday, May 17, 2007

Tell Gov. Strickland to reject abstinence-only funding

From Mary O'Shea at PPGC: As you probably know, when Governor Strickland released his budget, the $500,000 Ohio match to access federal Title V money for abstinence-only-until marriage programs was NOT included, and the governor stated that he was not planning to apply for future funds.

The House put the $500,000 back in the budget. Now the budget is with the Senate. We are very much hoping that Governor Strickland will veto the abstinence money when the budget returns to him. We and coalition partners are working towards this, and towards making sure that there are not enough votes in the House to override a veto. Meanwhile, a poll was just released showing public support for the Governor's position.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: You can write a letter to the editor in support of the Governor's decision, and chiding House members for putting the money back in for programs that were concluded to be full of medical inaccuracies and are not what the majority of parents want for their children. (Incidentally, the ACLU is now examining the abstinence curricula for separation of church and state issues.)

You can also contact your legislators and tell them that you don't want your state tax dollars funding abstinence-only-until marriage programs. Find your legislators at http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/.

DO IT NOOOOOOOW.

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