Over 70 Lawmakers Have Asked the Governor to Reactivate the Man Phone on the Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Abortion Decision

Over 70 Lawmakers Have Asked the Governor to Reactivate the Man Phone on the Anniversary of the Roe v Wade Abortion Decision

Over 70 lawmakers have recently signed a letter calling upon Governor Douglas to reactivate the controversial web site entitled themanphone.org. It is likely that few, if any, of those lawmakers actually saw the raunchy website complete with pulsating pictures, suggestive overtones and messages that included advising men about being "good lovers." For example, the STUD or DUD tab was designed to help improve your sexual prowess whether you were having a "one-night stand" or in a more committed relationship.

Beyond the inappropriateness of the site and the link to adult pornography, PPNNE surely violated the federal guidelines when they decided to add a link to The Man Phone on their web site designed for teens.
Action Item: Please call your legislator and ask them if they actually visited themanphone web site before it was taken down and let them know how you feel about your taxpayer dollars being used to encourage risky behavior.

Below is a copy of the letter sent to the Governor with the list of lawmakers who signed on:

January 20, 2006

Governor James Douglas
109 State Street Pavilion Building
Montpelier, Vermont 05609

Secretary of Human Services Michael Smith
C/O Vermont Agency of Human Services
103 South Main St.
Waterbury, VT 05671-0201

Commissioner of Health Paul Jarris
C/O Vermont Department of Health
108 Cherry Street
Burlington, Vermont 05402

Dear Governor Douglas, Secretary Smith and Commissioner Jarris:

We, the undersigned legislators, are writing to you today to urge you to reactivate themanphone.org website, which was shut down early last month.

It seems fitting that we make this request on the eve of January 22, 2006, the 33rd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, at a time when we as Americans are faced with some of the most serious threats to our civil liberties in the history of our nation. Central to those threats are the repeated attacks on our right to privacy and our cherished freedom from government interference in the most personal and private aspects of our lives.

We are especially concerned that while our federal government is doing everything in its power to restrict access to family planning and reproductive health and abortion services, we continue to see dramatic increases in funding for dangerous abstinence-only-until-marriage education. Abstinence-only education denies our young people medically accurate information regarding contraception, reproduction, and sexual health.

Studies have repeatedly shown that comprehensive medically accurate information about reproduction and sexual health is the best way to prevent unintended pregnancy, abortion, and the spread of sexually transmitted infection, especially among young people.

Our young people are bombarded daily with unrealistic, inaccurate, and misleading messages about sex through media images on television and the Internet. Not surprisingly, young adults rank television and the Internet second only to school sex education programs as a leading source of information about sex.

An effective, federally funded website, themanphone.org, targets Vermont young men ages 18-to 24-years old with messages designed to decrease the incidence of unintended pregnancy, decrease the incidence of sexually-transmitted infection, encourage condom use, and generally improve the health of young Vermont men. This heavily used website received national recognition for its innovative ways of reaching young men with positive messages that promote honest communication, strong relationships, self-respect and healthy sexuality; messages which are solely lacking in our culture.

As policy makers, parents and proud Vermonters, we are very disappointed with the decision by the Vermont Department of Health to shut down themanphone.org website for an indefinite period. It appears that this decision was made as a result of pressure from right-wing extremists in our state. We understand that there were concerns raised about inappropriate material on a linked site; however, with the link removed, we know of no reason why the website should not be reactivated.

In the interest of serving our constituents, reducing costly health care expenses, and promoting and protecting the health of all Vermonters, we ask that themanphone.org website be reactivated without further delay.

Respectfully,

Rep. Ann Seibert
Rep. Tony Klein
Rep. Donna Sweaney
Rep. Sara Copeland-Hanzas
Rep. Debbie Evans
Rep. Malcolm Severance
Rep. Mark Larson
Rep. Martha Heath
Rep. Linda Martin
Rep. Bill Lippert
Rep. William Aswad
Rep. Ernest Shand
Rep. Rosemary McLaughlin
Rep. John Rodgers
Rep. Bill Botzow
Rep. Sarah Edwards
Rep. David Potter
Rep. Michael Reese
Rep. Peter Hunt
Rep. David Deen
Rep. Dexter Randall
Rep. Steve Maier
Rep. David Sharpe
Rep. Johannah I. Donovan
Rep. Janet Ancel
Rep. Michele Kupersmith
Rep. Timothy Corcoran
Rep. Lynn Bohi
Rep. Alison Clarkson
Rep. Francis K. Brooks
Rep. Sandy Haas
Rep. Ann Pugh
Rep. Patsy French
Rep. William Jewett
Rep. Virginia Milkey
Rep. Shap Smith
Rep. Richard Marek
Rep. Robert Kiss
Rep. Ken Atkins
Rep. John Tracy
Rep. Clint Martin
Rep. Mitzi Johnson
Rep. Tim Jermain
Rep. Jim Masland
Rep. Helen Head
Rep. Jim McCullough
Rep. Warren Kitzmiller
Rep. Kathy Pellett
Rep. Stephen Green
Rep. Richard Marron
Rep. Jim Hutchinson
Rep. Winston Dowland
Rep. Carol Hosford
Rep. John Malcolm
Rep. Robert Rusten
Rep. Betty Nuovo
Rep. Scott Orr
Rep. Floyd Nease
Rep. Ira Trombley
Rep. Alice Emmons
Rep. James Lorber
Rep. Anne Mook
Rep. Denise B. Barnard
Rep. David Zuckerman
Rep. Michael Fisher

Sen. Rod Gander, Windham County
Sen. Jeannette White, Windham County
Sen. Don Collins, Franklin County
Sen. Claire Ayer , Addison County
Sen. Harold Giard, Addison County
Sen. Virginia Lyons, Chittenden County
Sen. Jim Condos, Chittenden County