Condoms Trump Abstinence in Obama Global AIDS Policy, Aide Says

[cal04]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aKrIK33ovrk8

President-elect Barack Obama will reverse U.S. family planning and AIDS prevention strategies that have long linked global funding to anti-abortion and abstinence education, a public-health adviser said.

Public health policies of President George W. Bush's $45- billion PEPFAR program have brought AIDS drugs to almost 3 million people in poor countries such as Rwanda and Uganda, more than under any other president. Still, requirements that health workers emphasize abstinence from sex and monogamy over condom use have set back sexually transmitted disease prevention and family planning globally, said Susan F. Wood, co-chairman of Obama's advisory committee for women's health.

``We have been going in the wrong direction and we need to turn it around and be promoting prevention and family-planning services and strengthening public health,'' said Wood, a research professor at George Washington University School of Public Health in Washington.

(snip)
Obama ``is committed to looking at all this and changing the policies so that family-planning services -- both in the U.S. and the developing world -- reflect what works, what helps prevent unintended pregnancy, reduce maternal and infant mortality, prevent the spread of disease,'' Wood said.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Hey, Abstinence Only can be successful. Just ask Sarah Palin's daughter.

[JackBeck]

2. Proud to see the real adults are finally back in charge.

Bush's abstinence education has been an abject failure.

[DrToast]

4. Seriously, it's almost too good to be true...

A government that enacts policies that actually work!

[JackBeck]

9. And aren't policies based on a re-election campaign

Geared at invigorating a right-wing base.

[truthisfreedom]

3. Free condom distribution in these countries is REAL COMPASSION. Anything short of that

in any public health program is completely irresponsible. Of course, "completely irresponsible" and "total lack of accountability" are the two best descriptors of the bush administration.

[Lex]

5. Oh thank gahd. A reality-based policy.

nt

[TXDemGal]

6. Jeebus...ya mean they're gonna actually do The Right Thing

and something that has a good chance of stopping the spread of HIV?? So glad we soon will have an administration that's living in The Real World.

Yes we can!

[JackBeck]

7. Obama is rather advanced on this issue.

He co-sponsored a bill in the Senate with Olympia Snowe to increase funding for microbicide research which explores new prevention options, espcially for women where condom negotiation cannot be part of the conversation with their partners.

His HIV/AIDS program is going to be one of the best we've seen in many years.

[Lex]

8. That's great news.

I'm so looking forward to getting the ball rolling on turning back Bush's idiotic policies.

[JackBeck]

10. Occasionally, I would get some negative feedback for showing some bias during my workshops.

But facts are facts, so any Rethugs in the audience can suck it if their sensitive feelings were hurt anytime I'd emphasize Obama's advanced knowledge surrounding HIV/AIDS.

[rainbow4321]

11. Looks like Ryan White Funding will be in good hands for the next 8 years!

Now that some REALITY will be thrown into any decision making about it's funding.
This was my main argument with the 2 repubs who I work with at our HIV/AIDS clinic when they told me who they supported in the election..our clinic is funded by RW, most all of our patients have it as their primary source of payment for their medical care, and OUR PAYCHECKS come from RW funding...how the HELL can you support the (repub) party that will most likely strip the funding down even further??? Where in the hell are these patients going to turn to if they lose their funding???? Usually all I got in return was a blank look and a shrug.

http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid63934.asp?page=3

Ryan White has essentially been flat-funded since the year 2000. Though representatives from the Obama campaign promised increases, they did not commit to a dollar amount. “We want to make sure we work with Congress to come up with the right number as we go forward,” said Neera Tanden, the Obama campaign's domestic policy director.

Tanden added that increased funding would help limit the extent to which rural areas with an emerging epidemic have to compete for money with urban areas that already have a large population of persons living with AIDS. “We don't need to have this divisive strategy of pitting one area against another. We should add additional funding,” she said.

Another point surrogates emphasized was Obama’s focus on using a “science-based” approach to fighting the epidemic rather than relying on abstinence-only education to decrease infection rates.

“With all of the billions of dollars that have been given to HIV/AIDS prevention around the world,” DeGette said of the Bush administration’s international efforts, “most of that money has been given to, in the past, religious organizations that will not give condoms out. Now that just isn't going to work.”

[No Elephants]

12. OMG! Policy based upon reality! Can we still take it? Have we forgotten how?