Latest attempt by CDC to fund political activity against their own stated policies
Conference claims abstinence education is causing an increase in STDs
May 1, 2006
The latest conference sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control claims abstinence education is causing an increase in STDs despite scientific data that suggests the opposite.
The upcoming “2006 National STD Prevention Conference” scheduled for May 8- 11 in Jacksonville, Florida ignores the fact that a majority of high school teens are practicing abstinence according the agency’s own data. In fact, there appear to be only two presentations listed on the schedule for the conference that address abstinence. One actually claims that abstinence education programs “are not empirically supported and have been tied to actually raising STD infection rates.” The presentation notes that states have enacted federally funded abstinence programs and seeks to “better understand the political process involved to modify these unfortunate circumstances.”
It should be noted that this is not the first time the CDC has funded a conference 1) whose themes oppose their own stated policies and 2) that emphasizes political agendas over public health.
2003 conference in New Orleans sponsored in part by nine federal agencies
2004 National STD Prevention Conference in Philadelphia
2004 conference in Washington, DC (which the White House eventually pulled the plug on)
2005 CDC sponsored drug legalization conference in Salt Lake City
