An academic conference on preventing sexually transmitted diseases revamped a panel on abstinence at the behest of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, The Washington Post reported this morning. The meeting, the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference, which opened on Monday in Jacksonville, Fla., was to have held a panel on “Are Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs a Threat to Public Health?”
But when Rep. Mark Edward Souder, an Indiana Republican, got wind of the session, he prevailed on the meeting’s sponsor, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to change the name of the panel, disinvite a speaker who was deemed too critical of an abstinence-only approach, and invite two other speakers who were considered more sympathetic to it.
A spokesman for Mr. Souder said: “What was basically a propaganda panel has had its politicized nature removed and appears now to be a more accurate reflection of the scientific opinion.”
A scientist who helped organize the meeting said: “It is unprecedented that this type of interference takes place at a scientific meeting.”
A CDC spokeswoman said: “Upon further review of the composition of the panel, CDC did decide the symposium was not balanced and needed to be expanded to include a broader perspective on abstinence education.”
