Sex Education
New York
1 in 4 New Yorkers have genital herpes-"HSV-2 is a lifelong sexually-transmitted infection that can cause painful genital sores in a minority of cases, but most people have no recognizable symptoms....The prevalence of the condition is also concerning because it facilitates the spread of HIV – doubling the risk that a person will contract HIV when exposed to it...The new study suggests that genital herpes is more common in New York City than nationally (26% of adults versus 19%). Among New Yorkers, the rate is higher among women than men (36% versus 19%)....and higher among men who have sex with men than those who don’t (32% versus 18%). This is the first measurement of New York City’s infection rate, but the national rate has declined in recent years...Genital herpes isn’t the only risk facing sexually active New Yorkers. The Health Department received more than 65,000 reports of sexually transmitted infection in 2007 alone. Rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and infectious syphilis are above the national average and, as the Health Department reported last fall, HIV infection is increasing among young men who have sex with men....The best way to prevent genital herpes is to not have sex. If you are sexually active, use condoms correctly and consistently to help reduce the chance of infection...The Health Department has distributed more than 48 million NYC Condoms since 2007 and continues to give away more than 3 million every month at clinics, health clubs, bars, barbershops and other venues. Any business can order NYC Condoms in bulk by calling 311 or visiting http://www.nyc.gov/condoms.%22- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene a 2004 study just released.
New York Governor Launches Crusade to Expand Abortions-"New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, is pushing the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, which declares that women have a "fundamental right" to abortion — including in the third trimester. The bill also takes out any reference to the preborn child as a "person." The state is already the national leader in abortions — the annual rate of 38 per 1,000 women of childbearing age is the highest of any state and twice the national average, the New York Daily News reported. New York has neither mandatory waiting periods for abortion nor parental-notice requirements. The state Medicaid program covers abortion for poor women. “Our governor wants to make sure that our state has the most strengthened law concerning abortion in the entire nation,” said the Rev. Jason McGuire, assistant to the director at New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. “That bill really creates some pretty heinous provisions. It violates not only the life of the unborn child, even in the third trimester, it actually endangers the life of the woman.”-02/2008
NY Gov. Spitzer Resigns over Sex Scandal-"New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has resign his post in disgrace after being caught in a prostitution scandal."-Video report 03/2008
School choice
Washington DC
Fate of D.C. Voucher Program Darkens-"Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said this week that she is working on a plan to phase out the controversial D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the first in the country to provide federal money for vouchers...the program, narrowly approved in 2004 for five years by the then-Republican majority...Parents of scholarship recipients offer high praise for the program, crediting it with changing the direction of their children's lives. Patricia William, whose son Fransoir, 11, is a sixth-grader at Sacred Heart, a Catholic school in Northwest, said his growth has been striking. "He's been developed in many ways, intellectually, emotionally and in his values," she said. "I couldn't ask for anything better." Wendy Cunningham said her daughter Jordan, who will be a senior, has thrived since entering Georgetown Day School two years ago and has had access to opportunities that likely would not be available otherwise."-Washington Post
Pro-Life
Poland
Poland in an Uproar after Coercive Abortion Pressure Put on 14-Year-Old by Planned Parenthood-"Polish media is awash with the case of a 14-year old girl who is being pressured into abortion by the country's most prominent abortion activist, Wanda Nowicka of the Polish branch of Planned Parenthood."
Religious Freedom
Canada
Human Rights Harassment against Catholic Magazine Costs $20,000, So Far-"De Valk denies that the magazine at any point published hate speech. Wells, says de Valk, pulled out-of-context quotations from a total of 16 of 108 articles that CI has printed on the homosexualist issue since 1993. These articles dealt with the ongoing push within the public sphere to normalize homosexuality and, in particular, to legalize homosexual "marriage."...As a consequence, he observed, every single hate speech complaint that has been made against a Christian or conservative has resulted in a conviction. For this reason, he says, it is time to step up the push for the elimination of or the restructuring of the human rights commissions which, de Valk says, have become the tool of a very small minority of radical activists, and which are therefore "threatening the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion of a good number of Canadians."
