Lifesaving HIV program faces a new threat: U.S. abortion politics

[ZiprHead]

Lifesaving HIV program faces a new threat: U.S. abortion politics

For two decades, the United States has pursued a far-reaching global agenda to fight HIV and AIDS, an initiative credited with saving more than 25 million lives. But the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR, has been abruptly bogged down in a domestic political fight, with Republicans citing allegations that the program’s funding is being used to indirectly support abortions — claims that health advocates, Democrats and PEPFAR officials say are baseless.


As a result, lawmakers have spent months wrangling over whether Congress will reauthorize the program for five years, for one year or not at all — a decision that experts warn has both practical and symbolic consequences.
“If PEPFAR doesn’t get reauthorized, the program can continue — but it could send some pretty chilling messages to people in the field who depend on PEPFAR for life support,” said Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, a health policy organization that has tracked the provisions set to expire Sept. 30.

But the program is now dogged by accusations that its funds are helping prop up abortion providers, a charge first publicly leveled in a report from the conservative Heritage Foundation in May and amplified by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (N.J.), an antiabortion Republican who chairs a key House panel.


“It’s just dumbfounding to me that the charge has been taken seriously,” said Shepherd Smith, a co-founder of the Children’s AIDS Fund International who has worked closely with PEPFAR since its start and is among the advocates urging Congress to reauthorize the program before key provisions expire later this year.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

AIDS makes sex dangerous. It's a good thing!

 

[ZiprHead]

AIDS makes sex dangerous. It's a good thing!

WTF!?!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

AIDS makes sex dangerous. It's a good thing!

WTF!?!

That wasn't Loren's position, it is his reflection on the GOP take on it. The GOP want to control people's sex lives. Having a dangerous STD out there helps their cause.

 

[ZiprHead]

AIDS makes sex dangerous. It's a good thing!

WTF!?!

That wasn't Loren's position, it is his reflection on the GOP take on it. The GOP want to control people's sex lives. Having a dangerous STD out there helps their cause.

Thanks for clearing that up. It kinda' startled me.

 

[laughing dog]

PEPFAR is a perfect bete noire for a segment of the GOP: aid to foreigners that helps save lives of people of color.

 

[bilby]

PEPFAR is a perfect bete noire for a segment of the GOP: aid to foreigners that helps save lives of people of color.

...who they suspect are homosexuals, prostitutes and/or drug addicts.

 

[Toni]

PEPFAR is a perfect bete noire for a segment of the GOP: aid to foreigners that helps save lives of people of color.

You had them at aid to foreigners. Not saving the lives of people of color is just a bonus.

 

[Bullmoose Too]

PEPFAR is a perfect bete noire for a segment of the GOP: aid to foreigners that helps save lives of people of color.

You had them at aid to foreigners. Not saving the lives of [bold]poor people[\bold]is just a bonus.

Fixed. You gotta remember that the GOP just doesn’t like poor people in general. It’s like that old Simpsons episode where Sideshow Bob runs for mayor. The GOP wants what’s worse for everyone.