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New York Times
By ROBERT PEAR
July 15, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration wants to require all recipients of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control.

Under the draft of a proposed rule, hospitals, clinics, researchers and medical schools would have to sign “written certifications” as a prerequisite to getting money under any program run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

By Lisa Greene, St. Petersburg Times 
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 

 
TAMPA — Making health care more affordable is so important to 95 local and national advocacy groups that they have formed a coalition to push health care reform.

The coalition, Health Care for America Now, launched a national media campaign Tuesday with news conferences in Tampa and 52 other cities, including six more in Florida.

"We will either have a guarantee of quality, affordable health care," said Bill Newton, executive director of the Florida Consumer Action Network, one of the groups participating. "Or we will continue to be at the mercy of the private insurance industry … putting company profits before our health."

Participating groups include the National Education Association, the Campaign for America's Future, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Service Employees International Union and MoveOn.

Associated Press

June 24, 2008

By KEVIN FREKING 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Skeptical states are shoving aside millions of federal dollars for abstinence education, walking away from the program the Bush administration touts for slowing teen sexual activity. Barely half the states are still in, and two more say they are leaving.

Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 

June 27, 2008

ISSUE: More states rejecting abstinence grants.

It is no great surprise that states are having doubts about the effectiveness of federal abstinence education programs.

Naples Daily News 

June 24, 2008

When it comes to HIV/AIDS numbers, the South is definitely facing an uphill battle, one AIDS official said.

“I think the statistics are still pretty amazing,” said Kathie Hiers, CEO of AIDS Alabama, a nonprofit group in Alabama that provides housing and supportive services to low-income persons with HIV/AIDS. “Look at the South ... by far the fastest-growing area in the country.”

The New York Times
June 3, 2008
With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside.

When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can.

Letter to the Editor: Naples Daily News
May 28, 2008
May is Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month.

Did you know that the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate among developed countries, and that Florida has the sixth-highest teen pregnancy rate in the U.S.? Combine that with a new Centers for Disease Control study showing that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection, and it is safe to say that the health and future of our young women are at risk.

Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel
May 18, 2008
Tynishia Kelly knows the consequences of teen motherhood all too well.

Kelly, 30, had her daughter Taiysha, when she was 16. She worked two jobs to survive, lived in public housing for a time and struggled to make ends meet.

That's why Kelly, of Orlando, doesn't want Taiysha to follow in her footsteps.

Harold Valentin, The Tampa Tribune
April 30, 2008

FOREST HILLS - Not only is lack of sex education a problem for high school students in Hillsborough County, said members of Teen Source Theatre, but also misinformation.

Source teens say a few popular myths include: Only gay people can get AIDS; pregnancy can be prevented if sex occurs in a swimming pool; and condoms don't work.

Blake High School junior Emily Compton, a three-year Source member, said staff at her school do not talk about the merits of condom use, only the contraceptive's failure rate.

Will Dunham, Reuters
April 24, 2008
Programs teaching U.S. schoolchildren to abstain from sex have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins, health groups told Congress on Wednesday.

The Bush administration, however, voiced continuing support for such programs during a hearing before a House of Representatives panel even as many Democrats called for cutting off federal money for so-called abstinence-only instruction.