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June 29, 2006

Abstinence Program Doubles AIDS Rate in Uganda

In 1986, Uganda's President " launched an ambitious HIV prevention campaign, which included massive condom distribution, explicit information about transmission, and messages about delaying sex and reducing numbers of partners. HIV rates dropped from 15 percent in the early 1990s to 5 percent in 2001."

Then Christian activists got involved and Uganda's success took a sharp turnaround. New HIV infections nearly doubled between 2003 and 2005.

[C]onservative think tanks and Christian right activists saw what they wanted to see. Uganda's balance of abstinence, being faithful, and condom use, or ABC, became abstinence, be faithful, with condoms "only as a last resort." It was common to claim, as Focus on the Family's James Dobson did in 2002, that, "Uganda has made great progress against AIDS by emphasizing abstinence, not condoms."

This rewrite became a mantra in Washington, as a third of Bush's global prevention money was set aside only for abstinence. Soon, players among Bush's evangelical base, from Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse to Anita Smith's Children's AIDS Fund, began to rake in millions in federal grants to spread the abstinence-only message in Uganda.

Thanks to the Christian influence, Uganda has removed the "C" from ABC.

"Uganda's new morality-based approach has unleashed a wave of stigma against condom use, because now, if you ask for a condom, it must mean you have failed to abstain or be faithful."

It didn't stop people from having sex. It just stopped them from using condoms.

It never ceases to amaze me how inevitably, whether the West interferes or refuses to interfere with the goings-on in Africa, it always seems to lead to the deaths of Africans. You'd almost have to believe it is intentional.

Posted by Becky at June 29, 2006 10:32 AM