If you were offered millions of dollars on the condition that you would promote condoms, would you take the money? You wouldn’t, but many would. This is the position that even many traditionally conservative-minded people in Washington, D.C, are finding themselves in. Unfortunately, some are taking the money.
As of this writing, Congress is mulling over a mega-HIV/AIDS relief appropriation. Current language in this omnibus complies with the U.S. Global AIDS Relief law, preserving the freedom of conscience of faith-based groups not wanting to be associated in any way with condoms, contraception or abortion. Groups of faith hope to receive U.S. money to save lives overseas.
So there is hope that the $15 billion in new money for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention will be spent in the years ahead on new and effective programs. These programs would be run from a new office established by President Bush: the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, which is now headed by Ambassador Randall L. Tobias.
Program Dangers
PRI has reported on the dangers of the old, status-quo HIV/AIDS programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). For decades programs overseas have merged HIV-positive and HIV-negative women into substandard clinics for HIV testing and injectable contraceptives. Needles are used and re-used. These programs rely dangerously on condoms. Covert abortions are provided under the guise of “menstrual regulation.”
The new law, on the contrary, does not mandate that the funding come through USAID’s family planning bureaucracy. For 2004–06, approximately $ l 32 million could go to abstinence-only programs. Nowhere in the new law is it specified that groups seeking U.S. funding must be involved with condoms or family planning.
This new freedom in HIV/AIDS funding is especially significant for genuine faith-based entities in Africa, such as Catholic dioceses whose medical infrastructure is among the strongest in the developing world. For those in the U.S. seeking funding, however, temptations exist to acquiesce to condoms and family planning. According to reliable sources, unsolicited HIV/AIDS grant applications have been submitted by conservative groups to USAID. Several groups have aligned themselves into a U.S.-based consortium which includes organizations that distributes condoms. According to those involved in the consortium, it is easier to receive funds when a willingness to collaborate with groups that promote condoms is demonstrated.
The Sources
The condom politics of Washington, D.C. emanates from USAID’s Bureau for Global Health. Favored groups, such as Family Health International (FHI) and Population Services International (PSI) have an established working relationship with USAID bureaucrats involved in the grant-awarding process. These gatekeepers of U.S. funding reject funding applications for faith-based programs overseas run by organizations which will not become involved in condoms,
The condom politics in Washington has placed a stranglehold on money, while death rates abroad skyrocket.
Just-released reports warn that HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly, mainly throughout the world’s underdeveloped regions: 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, including 2.5 million children under age 15; about five million people were newly infected with the disease this past year, and more than three million died.1
In the face of this suffering and death, radical groups have reacted with international ad campaigns which read: “We believe in God…We believe in condoms.” One ad campaign titled “Good Catholics Use Condoms,” is sponsored by a group that seeks to overturn the teachings of the Catholic Church on faith, family and human life.2
With new funding available, and a new HIV/AIDS bureaucracy being fleshed out, several Catholic bishops in Africa have stepped up to the plate to request equality and fairness in the granting of funds. Fortunately, the White House is paving a high road towards implementing and funding the most effective programs.
In the fight for U.S, dollars, the effectiveness of abstinence programs run by faith-based groups must not be corrupted by integrating abstinence with condoms and family planning.
The strongest private medical infrastructure in Africa and the Caribbean — Catholic hospitals and medical facilities — must be strengthened and preserved, for the sake of saving lives.
Such is the good sense of Congress in drafting the new law on Global AIDS Relief. Such is the high road paved by the White House.
Let’s hope that lobbyists in Washington who promote grantees, and the bureaucrats who approve grants, provide fairness to the best groups seeking U.S. funding.
