Over 150 AIDS organisations and advocacy groups have written an open letter to American President George Bush to voice concerns about the amount of funding allocated to domestic HIV programmes, and the censorship of HIV prevention materials.
Although the Bush administration has been praised for its commitment to increase global AIDS spending, its record on HIV at home is regarded more harshly. The letter highlights the instruction which STOP AIDS! San Francisco received on June 13th from the federal government’s Center for Disease Control to cease its HIV prevention workshops after complaints from religiously conservative politicians that they were “encouraging sexual activity”. A move that the letter’s 151 signatories said prioritised “political ideology over sound science and public health practices.”
The letter goes on to condemn “such regressive policies of censorship and intimidation” which are putting lives at risk and will lead to new cases of HIV. It adds, “this trend is not acceptable and works against not just the health and safety of at-risk groups, but the health and safety of all citizens.”
Calling on President Bush to show leadership in the domestic fight against HIV, the letter’s signatories ask for increased domestic HIV funding and new CDC guidelines which allow “comprehensive HIV prevention strategies” for at-risk groups, and for proper discussion of the role of condoms in HIV prevention. The Bush administration will only fund HIV prevention work that stresses sexual abstinence as the only reliable way to avoid HIV, and only mention condoms in the context of their (very low) failure rate.
President Bush is reminded by the signatories that he “has the responsibility to support sound public health and science-based HIV prevention models and programs that allow all Americans to benefit from research and public health policy without regard to the divisive politics of a few”.
Further information on this website
Condoms - factsheet
Bush administration censoring information on condoms because of ideology claim activists - news story, November 2002