Tony Abbot is the federal Minister for Health whose adopted out son, a
product of a premarital sex, recently reunited with his biological
father.
http://www.cathnews.com/news/502/153.php
Abbott accused of pushing teenage sexual abstinence
Government sexual health advisers are fearing that Health Minister
Tony Abbott's personal views are imposing a "moralistic agenda" on the
coming national HIV/AIDS strategy, according to a report in The Age
today.
The advisers are believed to be displeased that Health Department
bureaucrats changed a draft strategy, written by an HIV/AIDS advisory
committee, to include recommendations on teenage sexual abstinence.
One source said bureaucrats appeared to have changed the draft because
they thought it was what Mr Abbott wanted. Another source said it was
possible that the minister's office had intervened directly.
"One of the changes was that teenagers should not have sex before
marriage, which is a very moralistic agenda. Most of the committee
members have a view that if they are going to have sex they should be
told how . . . to do it safely," one insider said.
"That (the change) was a little bit hard for some people to swallow.
It's a very politicised bureaucracy. I'm not sure how much direct
involvement the minister has had. I think the bureaucrats changed it
because they thought it would please the minister."
A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said the strategy would "cover a range of
measures including education and different types of behaviour, but it
is really a matter for the committee to consider and prepare".
She did not comment on the suggestion that Mr Abbott had intervened
personally.
Mr Abbott, a Catholic, is known for his conservative views on sex.
Last year he sparked a debate on abortion that has drawn fire from
some of his female parliamentary colleagues. He was also criticised
for appointing the Jesuit Fr Michael Kelly to an HIV/AIDS
subcommittee.
Meanwhile the Sun-Herald reported yesterday that Abbott's emotional
reunion with his son Daniel O'Connor has led to a flood of calls to
adoption agencies and centres from people inspired to find their birth
parents or children.
"The staff here in the past week have noticed a real jump in the
number of calls and all callers have been mentioning the Tony Abbott
issue," NSW Department of Community Services director of adoptions and
permanent care services Mary Griffin said.
SOURCE
'Moralistic' AIDS plan denounced (The Age 28/2/05)
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were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors were dead and in
Hell.
-Mencken
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