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Ear to the Ground

GAO: Bush’s Abstinence Plan Hampering AIDS Efforts

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Posted on Apr 5, 2006

Countries with AIDS epidemics actually have to cut the money they spend on treatment in order to conform to Bush’s requirements for spending on abstinence programs, reports the government watchdog.

But it’s all good, because this way, God isn’t being offended by people having sex before marriage.

Washington Post:

The requirement that a large fraction of President Bush’s global AIDS plan go to promote abstinence and fidelity is causing confusion in many countries and in a few is eroding other prevention efforts, including ones to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

Those are among the chief conclusions of an 87-page report by the Government Accountability Office that examined the most controversial aspect of the giant AIDS plan, budgeted at $15 billion over five years.

The survey of U.S.-funded programs in 20 countries—15 of them the focus of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—found widespread support for the “ABC” strategy that encourages abstinence until marriage, being faithful thereafter and using condoms in high-risk sexual encounters.

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By Mark Hodges, April 5, 2006 at 7:02 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The Bush administration is criminal! Nothing more needs to be said!

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By orionm42, April 5, 2006 at 9:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

And I’m sure his daughters are abstaining!

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By im_not_2_b_nown, April 5, 2006 at 8:37 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

i agree with you
you live in the continent where the aids was started, there for it is all your falt.  i hate black people, and you need to get rid of what you started--------------------------------------AIDS!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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By Jake Kidde-Hansen, April 5, 2006 at 2:12 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

“abstinence until marriage, being faithful thereafter and using condoms in high-risk sexual encounters”

I live in Kenya, and the church here is just as blind as the church is in the USA. Promiscuity and casual sexual encounters are far more common here than the “Moral Majority” like to believe. And the abstinence message has been shown to have failed in many many western European countries, and even in the USA where, I believe, higher rates of teen pregancies are found in the areas where abstinence policies were most strongly advocated.

In the case where the spread of HIV/AIDS is a particular problem, such as in low-income urban and rural communities in Kenya, the ABC approach is not only failing, it is irresponsible.

When will the “Moral Majority” get off their high horses and see what the reality is. I hate to blame it on religion, but I unfortunately and clearly, that it is the most plausible reason for these irrational and failing policies: religion.

Sheesh!

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