Straight Talk Express - It's a Lie

The McModerate
by Christina Page

Pro-choice Americans haven't yet pegged McCain as the extreme anti-choice copy of George W. Bush he is.
When asked about his position on reproductive rights, McCain talking with the National Review advised, "I think the important thing is you look at people's voting record because sometimes rhetoric can be a little... misleading." And there's no truer statement. McCain's voting record, which NARAL Pro-Choice America scrupulously tracks, is telling. He has consistently voted against the right to a legal abortion and he has also consistently voted against contraception. McCain voted to end the Title X family planning program which is the only way millions of Americans have been able to plan their family. Title X has also been heralded as having prevented more than nine million unwanted pregnancies in the last two decades. Without Title X, the number of teenage pregnancies would have been 20% higher too. When it comes to the preventing the spread of AIDS. Bush clearly prefers Right-thinking anti-condom crusaders to scientists. It would appear McCain does too. And might similarly reward Coburn - to oversee HHS, perhaps.. More ...

McCain's health adviser is Tom Coburn, MD (R-OK) a staunch pro-abstinence opponent of federally-funded family planning programs. Senator Coburn and his fellow conservatives have successfully blocked many programs designed to promote the use of condoms. McCain and Coburn believe supporting the religious conservatives' fatwa against premarital sex is more important than protecting the health of American citizens.

Critics in the HIV and STD prevention communities worry that the conservative crusade to promote abstinence outside of marriage comes at too high a cost. Undermining people's confidence in the effectiveness of condoms threatens people's health and even lives, they argue, since sex among unmarried people is common in the United States and around the world, and achieving correct and consistent condom use is difficult enough.
The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy