Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/24680
national I REPORTS burden families in California and elsewhere, but they jeopardize some women’s lives. California has now eliminated more than $20 million in funding for domestic violence shel- ters, forcing the shelters to scale back operations, lay off workers, reduce hours or turn away women seeking a safe haven from abusers. Already six shelters have closed. “There is no getting around the fact that we may have to stop accept- ing clients by closing rooms, because we don’t have sufficient staff to cov- er,” says Judith Gordon, director of the Women’s & Children’s Crisis Shelter in Los Angeles. Gordon had to let 25 percent of her staff go in the wake of the budget cuts. As state budgets begin to take their toll on health and human service pro- grams, jobs held by women are first on the chopping block. In California and across the nation, women staff the majority of programs at risk of closing or downsizing: They hold 84 percent of California’s health-care support jobs, 60 percent of the social service jobs and 70 percent of the ed- ucation positions. Baran of IHSS points out that a vast majority of her staff is composed of women. “[You’re] talking about women who depend on state resources for employ- ment,” says Karen Bass, the speaker of the California State Assembly (the first African American woman who has held the position), who fought to restore many services the governor slashed with his vetoes. “It’s the total- ity of the cuts hitting women at the workplace and hitting women at home.” Adds Bass, “In general, Sacramento is an old boys’ club. No question about it.” The next couple of years don’t look much brighter for health and human service programs across the U.S.: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projects that state budget shortfalls will total $180 billion in 2011, $12 billion more than the total for state deficits this year. And, no doubt, shouldering too much of the burden will be mothers and their families. In the meantime, however, Bass suggests state legislatures have their work cut out for them. “We will be working over the next few months on looking for ways to restore money,” she says hopefully. —KATIE FARDEN Abstinence Isn’t Enough S Obama brings back a realistic notion of sex ed INCE 2001, THE BUSH ADMIN- istration saw to it that absti- nence-only sex education, despite its effectiveness being thor- oughly discredited, received around $1.3 billion in funding. But that largesse may now be ending. In July, President Obama zeroed out abstinence-only funding for fiscal year 2010 from three programs: the Adolescent Family Life Act, Title V of the Social Security Act and Com- munity-Based Abstinence Education. Instead, $178 million from the feder- al budget will be directed toward teen pregnancy prevention programs and comprehensive sex education. States participating in the Bush-era Title V programs could only use federal 16 | FALL 2009 funds to teach abstinence, rather than educate young people about contra- ception as well—which led to 25 states turning down the funding. A 2007 study ordered by Congress showed that abstinence-only education consistently fails to achieve its goal of preventing or delaying teen sex. If these programs have any effect, they are negative—such as skewing teenagers’ perceptions of contracep- tion by exaggerating failure rates and health risks. A federal survey conduct- ed in 2008 showed that more than half of participating teenagers who had made a “virginity pledge” became sex- ually active before marriage anyway. And the percentage who took precau- tions against pregnancy or STDs was 10 points lower than non-pledgers. Seventy-five percent of sex educa- tion funds in Obama’s budget will go toward programs whose effectiveness has been proven by research, and 25 percent toward “innovative” pro- grams. The House has approved the new Obama-proposed program, and the Senate may have voted on it by press time. Abstinence proponents are still try- ing to stymie comprehensive sex edu- cation. However, in late September, a Senate committee voted to restore $50 million in abstinence funds in an amendment to the health-care reform bill. The measure would have to pass the full Senate and House. —LEANNE MIRANDILLO www.feminist.org