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Harry Hope · Guest

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070618/reynolds

June 18, 2007 issue

The Abstinence Gluttons

Michael Reynolds

Over the past six years George W. Bush's faith-based Administration
and a conservative Republican Congress transformed the small-time
abstinence-only business into a billion-dollar industry.

These dangerously ineffective sexual health enterprises flourish not
because they spread "family values" but because of generous helpings
of the same pork-heavy gumbo Bush & Co. brought to war-blighted Iraq
and Katrina-hammered New Orleans--a mix of back-scratching cronyism,
hefty partisan campaign donations, high-dollar lobbyists, a revolving
door for political appointees and a lack of concern for results.

One of the chief cooks is a media-shy 63-year-old Catholic
multimillionaire, welfare privatizer and Republican donor named
Raymond Ruddy.

With close ties to the White House, federal health officials and
Republican power brokers that date back to W.'s days as Texas
governor, Ruddy has leveraged his generous wallet and insider muscle
to push an ultraconservative social agenda, enrich a preferred network
of abstinence-only and antiabortion groups, boost profits for his
company and line the pockets of his cronies--all with taxpayer
dollars.

Following the money swirling around Ruddy offers an eye-opening
glimpse into the squalor at the heart of the abstinence-only project.

One top Bush adviser left to take a job at Ruddy's charity, Gerard
Health Foundation, and a senior officer at Ruddy's for-profit company,
Maximus, left to take a top-level position at the Department of Health
and Human Services.

Leaders of Christian-right organizations that are Gerard grantees have
gained advisory HHS positions--and their organizations have in turn
received AIDS and abstinence grants to the tune of at least $25
million.

Maximus itself has raked in more than $100 million in federal
contracts during the Bush era.

As for Ruddy's abstinence-only policy, recent reports, including one
contracted by Bush's HHS, show that after more than $1 billion has
been poured into the enterprise, it simply doesn't work.

Already nine states have opted out from federal funds for this
faith-based boondoggle in favor of more comprehensive and effective
programs of sex education for their youth.

"I can't think of another federal program where so much money was
spent without any oversight and to such little effect," said James
Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a national organization
that promotes comprehensive sexual health policies.

"It wasn't that policy-makers didn't know that abstinence-only didn't
work. In 2000 the Institute of Medicine issued a scathing report on
these programs. But they went full steam ahead despite the warning.
It's beyond naïve. It's immoral."

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Read on, if you've got the stomach, at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070618/reynolds

Harry