The Bush Administration implemented this form of sex-education during his presidency but the federal funding was cut earlier this year by the Obama administration.

According to National Sexuality Resource Center (NSRC), the Senate Finance Committee passed the amendment from Senator Orrin Hatch two weeks ago to reinstate $50 million per year over the course of five years into the program.

The amendment passed in a 12–11 vote.

The NSRC has advised sex-ed supports to call into their Senate office to ensure that Congress does not fund the abstinence-until-marriage programs.

(Washington) The Bush administration, in its final days, has issued a federal rule reinforcing protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions and other procedures because of religious or moral objections.

Critics say the protections are so broad they limit a patient’s right to get care and accurate information.

“The refusal clause goes beyond women’s health and a woman’s right to an abortion or birth control,” said openly lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin.

“Under the new regulations, a doctor may also refuse to treat a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender person. Medical care must be based on science and the patients’ best interest, not the providers’ religious, political, or other philosophical views.”

The Human Rights Campaign also expressed concern over the new Department of Health and Human Services regulations, saying they could be used by a provider to administer an HIV test to a gay patient, and even be exempt from the statutory duty to tell the patient where else he could receive the test.

Under the regulations, a pharmacist could refuse to fill a prescription for hormone therapy if he or she has religious objection to transgender people.

It could also threaten women’s access to comprehensive health care by permitting pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraception even when doing so significantly burdens the patient’s access, or to refuse to participate in an emergency abortion even when the woman’s health is at risk.

The regulations override many state laws protecting patients’ access to medical services.

“These regulations sacrifice patients’ right to medical care, permitting providers to refuse to do their jobs when they choose,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “We ask the Bush administration: what happened to ‘first, do no harm?’ Denying patients legal, safe medical treatments for any reason is simply wrong, and violates the trust that all Americans, regardless of our sexual orientation or gender identity, place in our doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.”

HRC submitted comments objecting to these regulations when they were proposed, asking the administration to amend them to protect patients while preserving religious liberty.

“We are now calling on Congress to take action to eliminate these harmful regulations, and will encourage the incoming HHS leadership to amend them through the regulatory process,” said Solmonese.

Bush said he has appointed more than one-third of all sitting federal judges, and that “few issues are more hotly debated or have a more lasting impact on our country.”

With his historically low poll ratings, Bush isn’t exactly welcome at campaign rallies, appearing at the side of candidates. So indirect help like his speech here, and his fundraising efforts that landed the GOP $2.5 million over the last four days, are his strongest campaign tools. All of the fundraisers were held out of the view of the press and the public.

He called on the Democratic-run Senate, in the final days of his presidency, to vote on filling 34 vacancies in the federal circuit and district courts. Realistically, there is no chance of that happening if Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wins the White House, since his colleagues in the Senate would simply wait for him to be inaugurated and come up with his own list of nominees.

Bush criticized the Senate for the “ruthlessness that now characterizes the confirmation process.” He urged the Senate to take partisanship out of the process and end “tricks and gimmicks” such as demanding that all election-year nominees be consensus choices.

Democrats say they have confirmed a total of 326 of Bush’s judicial nominees, and that just 26 are pending now. They note that at the end of the Clinton administration with Republicans in charge of the Senate, there were 63 circuit and district court vacancies, far higher than the vacancy rate now.

“As the stock market continues its precipitous drop, for some strange reason he feels the need to give one more speech criticizing the Senate for not confirming judges?” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Yeah – that is just what the country needs right now. The fact is, Democrats have been much fairer to these nominees than Republicans ever were.”

Bush spoke before about 700 conservative legal scholars, judges, students and activists. Speaking in their language, and to applause and even some `amens,’ Bush said the definition of a good judge is one who does not use the court to “invent laws or dictate social policy” and who believes that the Constitution “means what it says” and “is an enduring document.” This code for the conservative approach to the role of a judge compares with the more liberal view that judges must have latitude to view the Constitution as a “living document.”

The issue of a president who would appoint judges who strictly interpret the Constitution is one of the more energizing topics for that key GOP voting block.

Bush did not mention presidential rivals Obama and John McCain, the Republican nominee, but he singled out the two Supreme Court justices he nominated – John Roberts and Samuel Alito – as “outstanding judges.” Obama voted against both of them. Bush touted the changes in narrow Supreme Court decisions since Roberts and Alito joined the court, citing, for example, recent 5-4 decisions that upheld a ban on a late-term abortion procedure and citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“Our founders gave the judicial branch enormous power,” Bush said. “It is the only branch of government whose officers are unelected. That means judges on the federal bench must exercise their power prudently – cautiously – you might even say, conservatively. And that means that the selection and confirmation of good judges should be a high priority for every American.”

He spoke on the first Monday of October, which is dictated by law to be the beginning of the Supreme Court’s new term. And his appearance came in Ohio, a crucial battleground state. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio.

Ohio voted for Bush, and now almost every Electoral College calculation concludes McCain must hold it to beat Obama. And yet, polls show McCain virtually tied or trailing there, along with several other important Bush states.

In signing the bill, President Bush said, “With this funding, we will support treatment for at least 3 million people.” However, the bill itself doesn’t set a specific target.

Early versions of the bill that passed the House specified a target of treating at least 3 million people by 2013, but that number was removed in the final version that Bush signed. Instead, the bill now says U.S. policy is to increase the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment beyond the original goal of 2 million.

The $48 billion measure renews the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is set to expire in September. The program has been credited by Republicans and Democrats alike with saving millions of lives in Africa alone.

The State Department said 1.7 million people had received treatment as of March 31 and the original bill’s 2 million-person goal will be reached by December.