Good to know that abstinence-until-marriage programs get more federal funding than any of the other HIV/AIDS prevention programs in developing nations. Yes, you read that right: They get more money than all other HIV prevention programs.
Programs to prevent the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are perhaps the most important tool in that long-term fight. Yet Congress specified that only 20 percent of the money could be spent on prevention, and one-third of that had to be used to promote abstinence until marriage. More money has been spent in that area than on other prevention activities, including distribution of condoms and blocking mother-to-child transmission.
But abstinence until marriage works, right?
Wrong. Marriage is actually a major risk factor for women in many of the nations that U.S. money is targeting.
For many women, marriage is a risk factor for AIDS because of their husbands’ dangerous behavior. Worldwide, 80 percent of women newly infected with HIV are practicing monogamy within a marriage or a long-term relationship. This shatters the myth that marriage is a natural refuge from AIDS. And it shows that, more than two decades into the epidemic, our fight against AIDS has failed to address the unique circumstances of women—especially women in the developing world.
Why are women so vulnerable? Physiological differences make women twice as likely as men to contract HIV from an infected partner during sex. In many countries, sexual inequality compounds the hazard by making it difficult, if not impossible, for women to enforce their choices about whom they have sex with, or to insist that men wear condoms. But one of the deadliest problems is that women simply don’t have the tools to protect themselves. Despite the array of breakthroughs we’ve seen for AIDS treatment, prevention efforts still rely on the three practices described by the abbreviation ABC (“Abstain, be faithful, use condoms”). These approaches work, and we must encourage them, but they all depend on a man’s cooperation. For millions of married women, abstinence is unrealistic, being faithful is insufficient and the use of condoms is not under their control.
Emphasis mine.
Of course, putting HIV prevention in the hands of women, and recognizing that marriage is not a safety net, wouldn’t be on message for the Bush administration, and wouldn’t please his supposed “pro-life” base. That base would certainly rather push its ideology world-wide than actually take steps to save lives.
“…That base would certainly rather push its ideology world-wide than actually take steps to save lives.”
Yep – see the file marked “HPV Vaccine”
wTF?!?!?
this is so stupid!!
[...] and Marriage: Reality Check Posted by Jack Stephens on April 4th, 2007 Jill writes: Good to know that abstinence-until-marriag [...]
I read that editorial this morning. Sick and wrong, Bush, as usual . . . I shouldn’t be surprised though . . . as funding useless crap as women die seems to be the order of the day.
How much money do you need to spend to say, “Don’t have sex, or else!” Honestly, I’ll do it for them on my own dime, even though I completely disagree with abstinence-only programs of any sort, be it sex ed or AIDS prevention, as long as they promise to divert the funds they’d otherwise spend toward useful projects.
Amen.
Well I’m an expat in Cambodia where the two most common modes of transmission are husband to wife and mother to child. It is estimated that 90% of the men in this country go to prostitutes. It’s accepted and perfectly normal – it’s not something they try to hide in mixed company or anything like that.
A recent report from UNAIDS shows that condom promotion is so successful with the official sex workers that many men are now going to bar girls and indirect sex workers so they can have sex without condoms.
The ABC “method” is beyond ridiculous in this country and in most I imagine. Wives cannot say no or ask there husbands to wear a condom.
Lets hope for some pragmatism soon!
I can tell you the situation in the Philippines isn’t that much better. I spent a few years there, among other things working with local organizations on HIV awareness, and husbands going to prostitutes is widespread. Especially husbands who work away from the family for any length of time. And the majority of women in the Philippines who catch HIV catch it from their own husbands, which isn’t really surprising.
Teaching abstinence or monogamy only doesn’t help the problem at all, especially given the social situation where an unfaithful woman’s viewed with far more condemnation than an unfaithful man (she’s not considered to have a need for sex that must be satisfied somehow). Telling a woman to be monogamous isn’t going to protect her or reduce her risks that much, and abstinence isn’t a practical option for every woman everywhere, especially not for her entire life. Condoms, when accurate information is available about them, they can be bought in reasonably non-shaming circumstances (as in a woman can get them at the local pharmacy without the clerk assuming, and telling all the neighbors she’s having an affair), they’re afforably priced, and women haven’t been scared away from them by the Catholic Church*, are fairly effective. As is linking decriminalization of prostitution to STD testing, although legalization would have far more benefit in encouraging testing and ensuring participants were consenting adults (anyone who might consider going to a prostitute but feels ethically bound to make sure she’s a consenting adult, DO NOT hire virtually any prostitute you can find in the Philippines even if she smiles and says she’s eighteen and says no one’s forcing her, because there’s a good chance she was threatened into lying).
ABC is better than nothing in a lot of places because people don’t know the basic facts (part of the reason for the country’s low rate of known HIV infections is that many health care workers don’t understand how HIV works and don’t think that someone who obviously has a non-HIV related disease can have HIV). But any attempt to teach about HIV prevention has to ge beyond the neat little presumption that abstinence is a simple choice you can make where the only downside is going without sex, or that monogamy is simply you decide to be monogamous, you get your partner to agree, and you’re safe forever, which dominates too much of the ABC-approach educational material.
*I will confine myself to respectfully disagreeing with the Catholic Church’s moral stance on condom use the day I see an agressive worldwide effort by the church to prevent HIV by fighting marital infidelity (particularly among men), sexual abuse and exploitation of teenagers, double standards that allow Catholic men to pay lip service to fidelity and sexual restraint while having affairs and patronizing prostitutes, and all other things considered sinful that actively spread HIV, and do so on a larger scale than they attempt to condemn and fight condom use, the “sin” that saves lives. Until that happens, I am going to call the church’s stance as I see it, an irrational double standard that panders to humanity’s baser instincts (it’s easier to focus on the obvious, superficial, and new-therefore-shocking symbols of human promiscuity than to dig into matters that have been running under the surface of society, which society has been structured for centuries to accept). I understand individual Catholics may, and frequently do have different stances than official Church policy, and don’t intend to accuse you all of holding the Vatican’s point of view.
Funny how Bush didn’t mention this fact in his SOTU when he talked about all the aid we give to combat AIDS in Africa.
It is all so demoralizing.
I was stunned to find out how progressive Iran’s (yes, Iran, the country GWB is so eager to demonize) family planning programs are. I wrote about it here: learning from Iran about family planning. For example, in Iran all contraception, from condoms to the pill, is free. Can you imagine that happening in our “far more progressive” democracy?
Thanks for the story, Jill. I blogged about it here.
Abstinence-Only Education Funding For People Who’re Already Abstinent Till Marriage?!
I think it’s very important to write ALL our Congressmen, perhaps including this little dialogue I just made up just to make sure they can’t miss our point and think we’re advocating a change because of ideology rather than logic, and ask them to ch…