Bush Says He Would Change Global AIDS Abstinence-Only Earmark If Proven Ineffective

Following a question from a reporter in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, President Bush said he would "change" a provision in his global HIV/AIDS program that requires that one-third of HIV prevention funding be spent on abstinence-only education if "it looks like it's not working," the New York Times reports.

An African reporter told Bush that the spending requirement in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is unrealistic because "multiple sexual relationships or partner relationships is the reality" in many African societies, "though it's not spoken of in public." Bush said that he "monitor[s] the results," and "thus far I can report, at least to our citizens, that the program has been unbelievably effective. And we're going to stay at it" (Stolberg, New York Times, 2/21).

During a news conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Sunday, Bush called on Congress to quickly reauthorize PEPFAR at a funding level of $30 billion over the next five years. An Institute of Medicine report and a Government Accountability Office report have said the strong focus on abstinence in PEPFAR has limited the program's reach.

A draft bill in the House Foreign Affairs Committee includes changes that would remove the abstinence-only education earmark from PEPFAR. The draft bill also includes new language that would strengthen support for contraceptive services for the purpose of augmenting the HIV prevention effort, as well as remove a requirement that groups receiving PEPFAR funds adopt a policy position opposing commercial sex work. Some congressional Republicans oppose the changes. However, former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), who died last week, had said that the Democrats' proposed changes to the program would reaffirm a compromise Republicans and Democrats made when they approved the original PEPFAR bill in 2003 (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/19).

PRI's "The World" on Wednesday reported on an abstinence-only education program at a school in Accra, Ghana. The segment includes comments from Sakyi Awuku Amoa, director-general of the Ghana AIDS Commission, and students (Harvey, "The World," PRI, 2/20). Audio of the segment is available online.