While we ecstatically celebrate the **defunding** of abstience-only sex education in President Obama's proposed 2010 budget-
- Wait. Acutally, take a moment to celebrate!!! -
We also need to recognize a huge loss. As a colleague of mine wrote in an email yesterday, "so he punked out on the Hyde Amendment".
For many of us, the election of President Obama means a lot of hope and already won/upcoming victories. But just because we win some, doesn't mean we should be conceding to the losses. As the Center for Reproductive Rights so appropriately puts it:
Obama Budget Ignores Healthcare Needs of Millions of Women, But Rejects Wasteful Abstinence-Only FundingThe Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion, makes vidal reproductive health care **inaccessible** to people on Medicaid, people in the military, federal employees, those who rely on Indian Health Services, incarcerated people, and those in the Peace Corps - just to name a few. This all at a time when many people continue to lose their jobs.