| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
02 Dec 2006 02:14:40 AM |
| Object: |
Abstaining from Greed and Dogma |
That's an abstinence policy that we should be teaching.
---
Abstaining from Greed and Dogma: The AIDS Policy We Should Call for in
2007
by Yifat Susskind
A whole generation into the AIDS pandemic, we now have significant
(though still insufficient) knowledge of how to combat the disease. But
while the world's collective understanding is gradually advancing, US
AIDS policy remains mired in a right-wing economic and social vision
that is curtailing progress and costing lives.
In fact, the politics that drive US AIDS policy-and sexual and
reproductive health policy in general-have swung so far to the right
that many in the US are no longer outraged by the truly outrageous.
Something that would have once sounded utterly insane-like requiring
health clinics to sign a loyalty oath condemning prostitution-today
passes for business as usual.
But as public debate shifts to the right, we should refuse to drift with
it. We need to hold our ground and continue to insist on policies that
reflect our convictions. Last month's election of a Democratic Congress
offers some hope, but only if we succeed in shifting public debate onto
more reasonable ground. One place to begin is to help people recognize
the ways that AIDS policy is fueled by financial greed, religious dogma,
and hostility towards women's rights. Then we can begin to address the
gap between what AIDS policy is and what it should be.
Financial Greed
What the policy is: After another three million AIDS deaths this year,
the Bush Administration is still prioritizing pharmaceutical industry
profits over ensuring people's access to medicine. Patents that allow
drug companies based in the US and Europe to control the manufacture and
sale of AIDS medicines prevent countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America from providing people with cheaper, generic AIDS drugs (even
though 95% of AIDS patients are in those countries). Meanwhile, the nine
largest US drug companies turned a profit of nearly $43 billion dollars
last year-more than the gross national income of some of the worst
AIDS-affected countries. The latest trend, embodied by Bill Clinton, is
to haggle with drug companies for reduced prices or donations. But
charity is not what the countries of the Global South are asking for.
What the policy should be: Reluctant corporate charity is no way to
fight the worst epidemic in recorded history. Rather, like food and
water, medicine should be excluded from World Trade Organization patent
rules. Not only is this a viable demand, the US already agreed to it in
trade talks held in Doha in 2001. We need to push the Administration to
make good on that promise. That means renegotiating recent trade deals,
such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement, that skirt
commitments made in Doha and prevent governments from providing generic
drugs to people living with AIDS.
Religious Dogma
What the policy is: Today, a full one-third of international US AIDS
prevention funding is mandated for programs that promote either
abstinence or fidelity as prevention strategies (condoms are decried as
a "last resort"). This is ludicrous. There is no evidence that
moralizing about abstinence reduces the spread of HIV. On the contrary,
in Uganda, it took only two years for HIV rates to double after US
missionaries-turned-policymakers effectively shifted the emphasis of the
country's AIDS prevention programs from condom use to abstinence.
Yet, Bush continues to favor right-wing Christian organizations that
preach abstinence in disbursing federal AIDS funding. He has stacked his
Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS with religious fundamentalists
and incompetent ideologues: this year's outstanding appointment was of
Herbert Lusk, a vocally anti-gay pastor with no HIV-related experience.
And just last month, Bush picked Eric Keroack-who opposes birth
control-to head the family planning programs at the Department of Health
and Human Services. Keroack believes that publicly funded sexual
education should consist almost entirely of abstinence promotion.
What the policy should be: Remember when public health policy was based
on public health? It's not too late. Rather than a fundamentalist
fantasy of stamping out sex, AIDS prevention strategies should be
grounded in what we know works: education and access to condoms within a
framework that promotes women's and girls' rights to negotiate sex and
make the best choices for their well-being.
Contempt for Women's Rights
Current US AIDS policy gives drug companies control over treatment
options and allows religious fundamentalists to dominate prevention
strategies. This union of greed and dogma has produced an AIDS policy
that undermines women's human rights at a time when more women than ever
before are being infected with HIV.
The drug industry's hostility towards generics is disproportionately
harmful to women: as the majority of the world's poor and those whose
health is often most neglected within families and communities, women
have the least access to costly AIDS medicines. Women are also
endangered by the abstinence-and-fidelity mantra of the religious right
because it ignores the fact that many women lack the power to refuse
sex-especially from their husbands. In sub-Saharan Africa, where 65
percent of this year's new HIV infections occurred, being married
actually increases a woman's chance of contracting the virus. And the
fundamentalist attack on abortion rights-which now permeates US
international health policy-continues to fuel the spread of AIDS. The
"global gag rule" has pulled US funding from any health organization
that provides information about abortion. As a result, clinics that once
offered a range of critical health services-including AIDS treatment and
prevention programs for women in some of the poorest countries-have been
forced to close.
Everything we know about combating the AIDS pandemic points to the need
for a synthesis of prevention and treatment strategies within a human
rights framework. And it's not Bono's or Oprah's job to develop and
enact those strategies. Safeguarding public health and upholding human
rights are the responsibility of government. To realize those goals,
federal AIDS programs should rely on generic AIDS medicines-which, at a
fraction of the cost of patented brands, are the key to ensuring
universal access to treatment. The global gag rule and Bush's
anti-prostitution oath should be repealed. And US policy should be
brought into compliance with the plan of action developed by public
health and women's rights advocates at the 1994 UN Conference on
Population and Development.
You don't need to have memorized the latest UNAIDS report to know that
corporate greed and religious dogma are no substitute for a human
rights-based international AIDS policy. That should be our message to
the new and improved Congress this World AIDS Day.
*A few places to start*
Call on your representatives to endorse Barbara Lee's bill seeking to
repeal the requirement that one-third of US HIV/AIDS prevention funding
be dedicated to programs that prescribe abstinence, and calling on the
President and the Global AIDS Coordinator to develop a comprehensive
strategy to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls.
Now that the Democrats control both Houses of Congress, we should push
for another vote to repeal the "global gag rule." Last year, the Senate
voted to rescind it, but the measure never made it past the House.
The next fiscal year's HIV/AIDS budget should reflect the US commitment
to fund its fair share of the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
TB, and Malaria. The Global Fund-which relies on generic medicines,
operates within a human rights framework, and facilitates international
cooperation-is the single best situated institution for combating the
spread of AIDS worldwide.
The Central America Free Trade Agreement was passed by such a slim
margin last year that November's victories may offer a real possibility
for future trade deals that actually comply with US obligations to allow
the manufacture and sale of generic medicines. Let your representatives
know that such provisions matter to you.
Yifat Susskind is the Communications Director of MADRE, an international
women's human rights organization. Her critical analysis of US foreign
policy, economic justice, and women's human rights has appeared in
online and print publications such as TomPaine.com, Foreign Policy in
Focus, Common Dreams, and The W Effect: Bush's War on Women, published
by the Feminist Press in 2004. Ms. Susskind has also been featured as a
commentator on CNN, National Public Radio, and BBC Radio. She is the
author of a book on US foreign policy and women's human rights and a
report on US culpability for violence against women in Iraq, both
forthcoming.
---
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1201-20.htm
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
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