ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

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Bipartisan Bill To Remove Abstinence-Only From Overseas U.S. AIDS Prevention Programs

Advocates for Youth Praises Legislation to Remove Earmark from PEPFAR

Washington, D.C. (June 22, 2006) Advocates for Youth today praised the introduction of the Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth Act of 2006 (PATHWAY), a bill that would remove the abstinence-only-until-marriage funding earmark from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

"Congresswoman Lee (D-CA), Congressman Leach (R-IA), Congressman Shays (R-CT), and the other co-sponsors of this bill should be congratulated,” said James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth. “This country must lead by example and provide complete, medically accurate information to those people in countries ravished by AIDS, not use its limited prevention dollars to promote an ideological agenda.”

PATHWAY would officially repeal the congressional earmark in PEPFAR that requires at least 33% of HIV prevention funding to be used exclusively for programs that promote abstinence as the only way to stop the spread of the disease.

A recent GAO recently raised questions about PEPFAR’s abstinence funding requirements, stating that the earmark “undermine[s] the integration of prevention programs by forcing [countries] to isolate funding” for only the ‘Abstinence’ and ‘Be Faithful’ components of the comprehensive ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Use a Condom) prevention plan. The report further found that the administration was over-interpreting the abstinence earmark to spend more prevention dollars on abstinence-until-marriage programs than required, placing further constraints on limited funds.

The bill also calls for the development of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy that addresses the major factors contributing to gender disparities in HIV infection. Women and girls are at much higher risk for infection, and, currently, PEPFAR does little to address this group that is quickly becoming the face of the pandemic.

"The ‘gravitational pull’ of billions of U.S. dollars has the potential to impact policy and practice for years to come,” Wagoner concluded. “This bill has the opportunity to change the U.S. government’s ideological-driven global HIV prevention agenda, and to provide honest, comprehensive services to those who need them most.”

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Advocates for Youth is a national, nonprofit organization that creates programs and supports policies that help young people make safe, responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.

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