U.S. Focus on Abstinence Under Scrutiny at AIDS Summit

c. 2006 Religion News Service TORONTO _ The Bush administration has come under attack at the International AIDS Conference for tying millions of dollars in U.S. funding to the teaching of sexual abstinence in poor nations, a policy that activists said is causing harm instead of saving lives. But the criticism on Monday (Aug. 14) […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

TORONTO _ The Bush administration has come under attack at the International AIDS Conference for tying millions of dollars in U.S. funding to the teaching of sexual abstinence in poor nations, a policy that activists said is causing harm instead of saving lives.

But the criticism on Monday (Aug. 14) was countered by former President Bill Clinton and Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates, who both praised President Bush for his $15 billion, five-year commitment to fighting the AIDS epidemic that has killed 25 million people and infected 40 million others worldwide.


At the conference’s opening plenary session, two AIDS activists said the politically and morally based American abstinence policy is unrealistic in male-dominated cultures where women are powerless.

“To my mind, it is the most blatant example of policies made by men who know nothing about the real experience of women and girls,” said Louise Binder, the chair of the Canadian Treatment Council. “These strings are ropes around women’s necks and they are killing us.”

Anand Grover, a HIV/AIDS legal activist from India, told the worldwide audience it is shortsighted for the United States to push its so-called ABC plan to fight AIDS. The policy, he said, conditions American AIDS prevention funding on teaching abstinence until marriage as the major goal, being faithful to one sexual partner, and the use of condoms only as a last resort.

“President Bush and the U.S. administration have to be told the ABC policy is killing people in the United States and the rest of the world,” said Grover. He said the ABC plan really stands for “anything but condoms.”

Much of the focus on abstinence has come from Bush’s core support among religious conservatives who view sex outside marriage as immoral. Many also take a dim view of condoms and say providing them at taxpayer expense encourages or condones extramarital sex.

At a separate conference session, Clinton said research has shown that abstinence can be part of the prevention picture but that “abstinence-only programs will ultimately fail.”

Clinton, whose foundation is spending millions of dollars to get lower-priced AIDS drugs to poor nations, said on balance Bush has “done a terrific amount of good” by providing “a massive amount of money” to the AIDS fight.


Gates, who plans to spend billions of dollars on AIDS research and treatment through his foundation, said the $15 billion in U.S funding represents the largest single pledge ever made to fight the staggering epidemic.

Gates said the U.S. program is now supplying antiretroviral drugs to more than a half-million people in 15 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. “This is a basic story of success,” said Gates. “It is an incredible program.”

The Microsoft chairman said condom use should be encouraged, but that ultimately the epidemic will be slowed when creams, gels and pills that block HIV transmission are developed in the years ahead. These advances will empower women because they can be used without the consent _ or even the knowledge _ of male partners.

Bush’s initiative, which was launched in 2003, allocates 20 percent of the $15 billion to HIV prevention, and stipulates that at least a third of that prevention funding must be spent on encouraging abstinence-until-marriage programs.

Administration officials have denied there is an excessive focus on abstinence, arguing it is part of a balanced approach that could include condom use and other measures.

The 16th international conference has brought together some 24,000 scientists, doctors, AIDS activists, government leaders and celebrities to discuss new research, explore treatment and prevention programs, and examine the impact of the epidemic in different parts of the world and on different sectors of society.


One theme on Monday centered on the plight of women and the increased feminization of AIDS, with the United Nations Population Fund estimating there are some 17 million women living with infection.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the U.N. said 76 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are women. In the Caribbean, the figure is 51 percent and in Asia, the U.N. said female infection continues to climb and is now at 30 percent.

Nafis Sadik, a special AIDS adviser to the United Nations secretary-general, said “gender inequality is one of the drivers of the AIDS epidemic.”

During a panel discussion, she said women in poor countries do what their husbands say, often get infected by their own spouses and then get “blamed and punished for their husband’s behavior.”

The conference also heard from Chris Beyer of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who talked about the increase in HIV infection in nations of the former Soviet Union. He said that number has risen to 1.5 million, with 200,000 new infections reported last year.

(Robert Cohen writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

KRE/PH END COHEN

Editors: See related news analysis, RNS-AIDS-FAITH, transmitted Aug. 15.

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