Group decries Bush HIV policy in Africa (WH reverts to bad AIDS rule)

[Up2Late]

(I heard this reported on NPR, during the 6:00pm hourly news update. Other than NPR, UPI is the only other news agency reporting this. Some of you might say, "So what, that's been their policy since 2001...?" but that's not really true. According to NPR, * had issued an Executive order to repeal this policy in 2003. So, the deal now is that, apparently, the WH is ignoring their own Executive Order now, and have re-imposed the "gag rule" on any NGO who receives ANY U.S. money, even if they use their own money for abortion and contraceptive counseling.)

Group decries Bush HIV policy in Africa

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A health-advocacy group Wednesday accused the Bush administration of hindering an anti-AIDS effort in Africa. The Center for Health and Gender Equity, a Washington-based health-policy advocacy group, said in a statement that on the eve of World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, the administration has imposed a global gag rule on groups seeking funding for a large project to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The gag rule, also known as the "Mexico City Policy," denies U.S. international family-planning funding to foreign non-governmental organizations that provide services such as safe abortions, counseling, referral, information on safe abortion and research on the effects of unsafe abortion, the center claimed.

CHANGE said it spotted the change in a request for applications issued Nov. 18 by the U.S. Agency for International Development for $193 million in grants for five years of programs in Kenya.

<http://www.upi.com/HealthBusiness/view.php?StoryID=20051123-040921-4475r>
(more at link above)

(Also, check out the "poll" about "Frivolous Lawsuits," go ahead, just try to vote NO on this one!)

[Cha]

1. So what does bono

have to say about this rw move?

[Up2Late]

3. I think he more into trade and debt relief, he's not much into AIDS in...

...Africa, sort of like the folks here.

It amazes me how little people here, at DU, seem to care about AIDS in Africa.

Very sad. :(

[entanglement]

6. Cheer up, some of us care

well, at least I do
:toast:

[Up2Late]

2. Here's the Press Release from CHANGE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jodi Jacobson
November 23, 2005

Center for Health and Gender Equity
301 270-1182 office;
301 257-7897 cell

Bush Administration “Breaks the Promise” by Expanding Global Gag Rule to HIV Funding On Eve of World AIDS Day Action will further undermine HIV Prevention efforts for women and girls According to the Center for Health and Gender Equity

Washington, D.C. – In a stealth move intended to draw little public notice, the Bush Administration has formally expanded the Global Gag Rule to U.S. global AIDS funding under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), according to the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE). The restrictions appear as part of a five-year, $193 million request for applications (RFA) for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in Kenya released late Friday, November 18th by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The RFA, entitled, "HIV/AIDS & Tuberculosis, treatment, care and support" references the gag rule twice in stating eligibility criteria, stating that all consortium partners must “agree, to abide by the Mexico City Policy, the Tiahrt Amendment, and all USAID policies and regulations.” (For a summary of the grant see , as well as to find links to the original RFA and related documents).

In August 2003, President Bush released an Executive Order specifically exempting U.S. global AIDS funds from gag rule restrictions. “The theme of World AIDS Day 2005 is ‘Keep the Promise.’ In expanding the Global Gag Rule to U.S. global AIDS funding on the eve of World AIDS Day, the Administration has broken its own written commitment not to subject global AIDS funds to these onerous restrictions,” stated Jodi Jacobson, Executive Director of CHANGE.

The Gag Rule, also known as the “Mexico City Policy,” denies U.S. international family planning funding to foreign non-governmental organizations that provide safe abortion services, counseling, referral, or information on safe abortion, advocate for changes in abortion law in their own country, conduct research on the effects of unsafe abortion, or otherwise work on safe abortion issues.(1)

The Global Gag Rule undermines efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place by crippling family planning programs that do so much as collect data on unsafe abortion. It also hobbles
efforts to address the toll taken on women’s lives worldwide by complications of unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted infections, complications of labor and delivery, and other leading causes of illness and death among women worldwide. According to conservative estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 600,000 women worldwide die each year from complications of
pregnancy and childbirth, of which at least 78,000 women worldwide die as a result of complications of unsafe abortion in a desperate effort to terminate unintended pregnancies. In Kenya, where abortion is
illegal, complications of unsafe abortion are a leading killer of married women in their twenties and thirties. The Kenya Family Planning Association lost U.S. funding because it refused to forgo the right to discuss the toll of unsafe abortion on the lives of women in Kenya. “Loss of this funding has severely undermined efforts to reduce unintended pregnancy in Kenya through expansion of voluntary family planning as well as to prevent HIV infections in women,” according to Dr. Godwin Mzenge, Executive Director of Family Planning Association of Kenya.

(Press Release continues at pdf link below)

<http://www.genderhealth.org/kenyagrant.php>

<http://www.genderhealth.org/pubs/PR20051123.pdf>

<http://www.genderhealth.org/>

(more at links above)

[ninkasi]

4. Well, of course...

It's far more important for Bush and the fundies to impose their views of morality on others, rather than save lives. :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

Naturally, THEIR views are more important than human suffering, and death caused by ignorance. May they burn in hell.

[Thom Little]

5. Group decries Bush HIV policy in Africa

A health-advocacy group Wednesday accused the Bush administration of hindering an anti-AIDS effort in Africa.

The Center for Health and Gender Equity, a Washington-based health-policy advocacy group, said in a statement that on the eve of World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, the administration has imposed a global gag rule on groups seeking funding for a large project to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The gag rule, also known as the "Mexico City Policy," denies U.S. international family-planning funding to foreign non-governmental organizations that provide services such as safe abortions, counseling, referral, information on safe abortion and research on the effects of unsafe abortion, the center claimed.

http://www.upi.com/HealthBusiness/view.php?StoryID=20051123-040921-4475r