Boehner Says Democratic Changes On Abortion, Abstinence 'Undermine' Global HIV/AIDS Program

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Abortion;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 10 Feb 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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The House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing to reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief on Feb. 7, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The committee is scheduled to vote on the $50 billion reauthorization draft bill on Feb. 14.

The draft bill includes changes to current law that social conservatives are strongly opposing. One change would remove a requirement that PEPFAR focus countries spend one-third of their HIV prevention funds on programs that promote abstinence. The abstinence requirement amounts to about 7% of all PEPFAR spending, the AP/Star Tribune reports.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Democratic proposals that would remove abstinence-only spending requirements and change policies on family planning would "undermine" PEPFAR and place the program's work "at risk," the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The draft bill also includes new language that allows funds to be spent on family planning services if they are used to reduce HIV. According to the AP/Star Tribune, Republicans claim that the draft measure would remove a ban on funding that could be used by groups to provide abortion services. However, Lynne Weil, the spokesperson for committee Chair Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), made clear that funds cannot be used for abortion. Weil also said the measure would strengthen the "conscience clause" by allowing faith-based groups to opt out of programs to which they are morally opposed.

Some Republicans also oppose the proposed removal of a requirement that groups receiving PEPFAR funds sign a pledge stating that they do not support legalization of commercial sex work or sex trafficking. Democratic lawmakers have said that some groups are unable or unwilling to sign such a pledge because of concerns that it would alienate women who need access to HIV prevention services.

Comments

Lantos said the Democrats' proposed changes to the program would reaffirm a compromise Republicans and Democrats made when they approved the original PEPFAR bill in 2003. He added that Boehner and other Republicans are "failing to honor the spirit of the compromise" and that they are "willing to endanger" the program.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) at a news conference said that allowing groups to spend money on abortion "would transform the program into a mega-funding pool for organizations with an abortion promotion agenda." Lantos said the Bush administration has endorsed a link between family planning programs and HIV/AIDS programs, adding that the proposal clarifies that family planning groups can provide contraceptive services as long as such services are aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS (Abrams, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2/7).

Related Editorial

Bush's "thinking" in regards to PEPFAR "needs a real-world adjustment," a San Francisco Chronicle editorial says, adding that the administration's "insistence on abstinence programs and a ban on treatment for [sex workers] is more hindrance than help and a bow to his religious conservative base." The Chronicle notes that a 2006 General Accounting Office study found that "abstinence teachings were a confusing imposition" on HIV prevention efforts. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. "has made a praiseworthy and bipartisan start on containing" HIV/AIDS, the editorial says, concluding that it is "time to widen the fight both overseas and at home" (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/7).

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