AIDS, children’s healthcare and the “pro-family” agenda
Yesterday’s FRC Action email alert shows just how narrow the religious right’s definition of “pro-family” and “pro-life” are. In the course of commenting on the Chambliss-Martin Senate runoff in Georgia, they say
Martin and Chambliss’s stark differences, particularly on the life issue, will have an immediate effect on the next session, where Democrats have already outlined broad changes to President Bush’s policies. Not only does the new administration plan to expand embryonic stem cell research, but the Senate leadership will further expand SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) and impose a condom-based approach to the billions in PEPFAR funding.
Authoritative research shows that expanding SCHIP gives poor and near-poor children health insurance, and comprehensive HIV/AIDS policy including condom distribution is critical and demonstrably effective.
I don’t know how many times we have to say this to the religious right: if you’re going to call yourself pro-family and pro-life, support policies that help families and save lives. Free-market fundamentalism and allegiance to abstinence at the expense of effectiveness are not family values.