WASHINGTON — The Senate Finance Committee voted to restore funding for abstinence education through Title V state grants Sept. 29 after Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, added an amendment to reinstate $50 million per year in abstinence education funding that President Obama had cut from his budget proposal to Congress.
The 12–11 vote came despite the committee’s chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., arguing that abstinence education doesn’t work. Two Democrats, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, joined all 10 committee Republicans in voting for the amendment to the health care reform bill.
The measure still must pass the full Senate and the House. The Associated Press (AP) reported that Baucus introduced an alternate measure that also passed the Finance Committee by a 14–9 vote. The Baucus amendment would make money available for education on contraception and sexually transmitted diseases, among other things, in addition to abstinence, AP said.
(TAB)
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