“Healthy Marriages/Healthy Families”

The ACLU also successfully objected when a completely revised “welfare reform” provision in the proposed 2009 budget authorized the Department of Human Services to apply for federal funding for so-called “healthy marriage” programs. These programs, like the federal government’s widely criticized “abstinence only” initiatives, often have a religious and anti-gay-marriage slant. Legislative leaders removed the provision from the budget on the House floor.