Abstinence Only and Birth Control Skeptic appointed to top women's health jobs in HHS

The Hill: New HHS appointee is Trump’s latest roadblock for women

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His appointments to the Department of Health and Human Services have only added insult to injury. Trump has appointed some of the nation’s worst anti-women’s health extremists to top cabinet posts in the agency, including the designation of birth control skeptic Teresa Manning to lead the nation’s family planning program. And the administration’s newest HHS addition — Valerie Huber — is one of the most vocal advocates for harmful and misleading abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.

Huber:

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Huber was previously the president of Ascend, formerly the National Abstinence Education Association — a misnomer for anyone who believes education should include accurate information. The organization promotes programs that withhold critical information about birth control and condoms, and worse, often distort the facts.

Back to abstinence only just when we've made progress, but who cares about that evidence stuff when you have faith:

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Right now in this country, we are at a 30-year low for unintended pregnancy, a historic all-time low for teen pregnancy, and the lowest abortion rate since Roe v. Wade. It’s no coincidence that at the same time more people have access to highly effective no-copay birth control than ever before, and sexual health information is available 24/7 on PlannedParenthood.org — where 68 million people go each year for accurate, honest information.

I am reminded of GW Bush's asinine move pushing abstinence in Uganda where their incredible strides decreasing the HIV infection rate was reversed as abstinence propaganda replaced condom promotion.

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A senior United Nations official has accused President George Bush of "doing damage to Africa" by cutting funding for condoms, a move which may jeopardise the successful fight against HIV/Aids in Uganda.... In 2003, President Bush declared he would spend $15bn on his emergency plan for Aids relief, but receiving aid under the programme has moral strings attached. Recipient countries have to emphasise abstinence over condoms, and - under a congressional amendment - they must condemn prostitution.

NPR 2006: Uganda, Abstinence and the Spread of HIV

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LAZARO: In just over a decade, a key measure, HIV prevalence among pregnant women, dropped from 30 percent to 6.5 percent by the early 2000s. Uganda's achievement won praise and more international aid.... But when it comes to prevention, there are worrying signs. After its steep decline, the HIV prevalence rate has stayed stubbornly plateaued at around 6.5 percent. About one million people, four percent of Uganda's entire population, are HIV positive.... LAZARO: Beatrice Ware became an AIDS activist after getting HIV from her husband. She says the American inspired abstinence campaigns do not protect women, many live in dire poverty, some in war zones where selling sex is a matter of survival. Being faithful doesn't protect women, she adds, noting that 40 percent of newly infected Ugandans today are married. Ms. WARE: We know that for most women now marriage is not a safety net, that infections in marriage are on the increase. And we also know from, again, evidence based from research that for women negotiating safer sex is really a big challenge. And however faithful you might be, like I was, you cannot control the sexual behavior of your husband.

By 2011: In Uganda, HIV Infections on the Rise

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After a wildly successful campaign against AIDS in the 1990s, Uganda is now the only country in East Africa where the AIDS rate is actually rising. Some people attribute this to a Bush-era abstinence-only approach to AIDS prevention, a policy at odds with patterns of sexual behavior in Uganda. Uganda was once a shining example of successful AIDS prevention, when, in the 1990s and early 2000s, it managed to slash its infection rate from around 15 percent to 6 percent. But for the past five years, infections have once again been on the rise, leading many people to question what went wrong.

As of 2015, the estimated HIV prevalence among adults (aged 15 to 49) stood at 7.1%.

The damage will no doubt be long-lived.

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