ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Advocates for Youth Opposes Holsinger for Surgeon General

WASHINGTON, DC (July 11, 2007) Advocates for Youth announced its opposition to the confirmation of Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. as the Surgeon General of the United States. In the face of strong opposition from AIDS, GLBT and reproductive health advocacy groups to the nomination, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will begin confirmation hearings on Dr. Holsinger tomorrow.

"This nominee poses a clear threat to the health and well-being of young people in this country, particularly gay and lesbian youth,” said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth. “His well publicized prejudice towards lesbians and gays make him unsuited to be our country’s premier medical expert.”

This past week, former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he found that the Bush Administration “ignore[ed] science or marginaliz[ed] the voice of science” if that voice was contrary to its political ideology. Citing issues such as abstinence-only-until-marriage, stem cell research, and emergency contraception, Carmona called for sound science and “a return to reason.”

"Confronting the administration’s ‘ideological police’ who censor important public health information should be the job of America’s ‘top doc,’” added Wagoner. “The last thing we need in the Surgeon General is an ideologue himself – someone who is comfortable with programs such as abstinence-only-until-marriage that spread misinformation and ignorance in the era of AIDS.”

"Young people deserve a doctor for all Americans who uses science, not bigotry, as the basis of decision-making,” concluded Wagoner.

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Advocates for Youth is a national, nonprofit organization that creates programs and supports policies that help young people make safe, responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.

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