Govt Puts New Restrictions on AIDS Funding

[bufffbison]

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-aids-prostitution-pledge,0,1072126.story?coll=sns-ap-health-headlines

By JUAN-CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press Writer

July 8, 2005, 3:31 AM EDT


WASHINGTON -- U.S. groups fighting AIDS overseas are being given an ultimatum by the government: Pledge your opposition to sex trafficking and prostitution or do without federal funds.

The new rule has created confusion among health groups that wonder how it will affect them, and has drawn criticism from others that say it infringes on free speech rights and could do more harm than good.


It will affect about $2.2 billion in AIDS grants and contracts this year, according to Kent Hill, acting administrator for global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which recently issued a policy directive outlining the regulation.

Hill said the pledge is a way for the United States to take a stand against a life he called degrading and debilitating

[fasttense]

1. What???

"U.S. groups fighting AIDS overseas are being given an ultimatum by the government: Pledge your opposition to sex trafficking and prostitution or do without federal funds."

Doesn't Nevada have legalized prostitution? I thought that the sex trade there was doing well. How come Nevada's federal funds are not withheld? Seems to me the US of late has been very good at pointing fingers at other countries but not at themselves. Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.