The abstinence gluttons
Esther Kaplan printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Tue Dec 20, 2005 at 12:08:31 AM EST

It would be ridiculous if it weren't so cruel. When Bush first got his global AIDS plan approved by Congress, Republicans tacked on guidance that at least a third of its prevention funds--a total of some $1 billion--should be spent on unproven abstinence-only-until-marriage messages. Now a leaked government document from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator shows that as of October 1 of this year, abstinence will now command two-thirds of sexual prevention dollars abroad.
"For years, the approach was condoms only," deputy coordinator Mark Dybul told the Baltimore Sun, which first acquired the document. "That needs to change." (Click here to download the relevant pages of the document, courtesy of the Global AIDS Alliance.) Why exactly a proven prevention approach based on condom access plus complete prevention education (it was never "condoms only") needs to change we'll leave to the AIDS officer who leaked the doc to the Baltimore Sun: "This is no longer about preventing HIV," he said. "It's about the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator responding to a conservative social agenda. And it will absolutely cost lives, in Africa and beyond."

No kidding. According to the best research we have, from sociologist Peter Bearman at Columbia University and published earlier this year in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the vast majority of participants in abstinence-only programs who pledge virginity go on to have sex. And when they do have sex, they're so unprepared for the experience that they are far less likely to use a condom, and far less likely to seek out medical attention for potential STDs than people who never pledge virginity in the first place. The harm may be limited when you push this stuff on American teens in exurbia. But it's almost incalculable when you try it in a country like Botswana with a 37 percent HIV infection rate, as Bush is doing.

According to the leaked document, Bush administration policy is no longer ABC--abstinence, be faithful, use condoms--a strategy once described to me by a Ugandan AIDS advocate as a three-legged stool. It is now "Abstinence, Being faithful and the correct and consistent use of Condoms for populations engaged in high-risk behaviors." Condoms have become the stool's broken leg, the poor stepchild, reserved for sex workers even in countries where the HIV prevalence is so high that marriage itself is an HIV risk factor.

A devastating new report from the Maryland-based Center for Health and Gender Equity analyzes actual spending on the ground under the president's global AIDS plan. CHANGE found that in 2004, long before this new directive went into effect, 56 percent of all sexual prevention dollars went to abstinence-until-marriage campaigns--far above the congressional guideline. In Nigeria in 2005, the share of prevention spent on abstinence-until-marriage was 69 percent.

Meanwhile, as the AIDS epidemic continues to explode, the United States is sending fewer condoms abroad now than it did 15 years ago, according to the CHANGE report.

As Michelle Goldberg pointed out in a recent post, it's hardly incidental that many of these abstinence-only grants are going to politically connected Christian right organizations such as Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse and the Children's AIDS Fund, to the tune of approximately $10 million each. (The latter group won its grant despite its proposal being rated "not suitable for funding" by the expert review committee, according to the Washington Post. But the head of USAID, Andrew Natsios, intervened to overrule the experts and insist that the group receive the grant.) And as Helen Epstein and others have reported, many of these programs are only thinly veiled attempts at Christian evangelizing. Graham himself, an early booster of Bush's global AIDS program, said in testimony before the Senate in 2000, "This crisis will be curbed only when the moral teachings of God's Word permeate African society."

It's a twofer--political pork and state-sponsored proselytizing--and the only people who pay are the millions who become infected with HIV in Africa for want of condoms and information, and who then face a future without treatment because of Bush's desire to get the smallest bang for his medical assistance dollars by buying only patent-protected HIV meds.




Display:
Mitt Romney, current governor of Massachusetts, promotes "abstinence only" education in the Bay State :

"The Romney administration plans to introduce a new abstinence education program in Massachusetts schools beginning next month, the state's most aggressive effort yet to use a controversial method of teaching Bay State teenagers about sex.

The campaign, scheduled to last through June 2007, will only target certain schools and will be aimed especially at teens in black and Hispanic communities, who tend to have higher rates of sexual activity. The proposal by the state Department of Health, quietly posted on its website earlier this month, would add an abstinence education program for 12-to-14-year-olds in an unspecified number of schools.
The campaign would be funded by a $50 million federal abstinence-only grant program, which provides money to states for initiatives that teach abstinence but deliberately do not address condoms and other methods of contraception" [ Boston Globe, Dec. 21, 2005 ]



by Bruce Wilson on Wed Dec 21, 2005 at 11:46:51 AM EST
Hey it may sound noble, but targeting high-risk groups with abstinence-only is exactly the wrong thing for them to do. To the extent that there's any positive data about these abstinence pledge programs it's that when they target young kids, say in junior high, who have never been sexually active, they may delay their sexual initiation by a year and a half or so. But there's no data that the programs work with kids who are already having sex. (In fact, such messages likely put these kids at greater risk for STDs, as I explained above.) These are the kids who need detailed information about birth control and condoms, including the kind of how-to lessons that make the pro-abstinence crowd blow a gasket. The condom failure rates that abstinence advocates love to refer to are all a product of using condoms inaccurately--which can easily be solved with clear information and demonstrations.

by Esther Kaplan on Fri Dec 23, 2005 at 12:44:19 AM EST
Parent


Media is consistently influencing the dependably life of an individual our general people and we can't oust its world nowadays. Television is basically one progressively kind of media which we are using for the arranging similarly as force purposes. explore more

by Ananomous on Wed Nov 20, 2019 at 11:05:24 AM EST

Gaming has gotten all the more testing and troublesome. Utilization of Ground-breaking and solid computerized reasoning have been expanded now which as a rule make a few games enough hard to accomplish their objectives in the game. see this here

by Abbot45558 on Thu Nov 21, 2019 at 10:16:48 AM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (199 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (111 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (251 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (177 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (180 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (331 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.