Dear Colleague:
USAID is calling for an end to sexual promiscuity overseas, in order to
stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. At the same time, however, USAID is promoting
sexual promiscuity in the form of over-the-counter distribution of
injectable contraceptives overseas, despite FDA standards.
There should be a law against this.
Steven Mosher
President
PRI Weekly Briefing
23 April 2004
Vol. 6 / No. 16
USAID Family Planning Undercuts Efforts to Curb Promiscuity
USAID's Bureau for Global Health, in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, has produced a peer-reviewed policy report which claims
that there would be no AIDS pandemic were it not for multiple sexual
partnerships.(1) In other words, according to USAID, the essential cause
of the AIDS pandemic in Africa is that poor men and women of color are
promiscuous unto death.
This is a Big Fat Myth.
Promiscuity does play into the spread of HIV. But the particular way that
USAID frames the issue of promiscuity, as the alleged primary cause of
HIV, downplays one of its leading causes -- medical transmission of HIV in
USAID-funded family planning clinics. It also reveals an agenda to mute
criticism of failed programs, and an agenda to carry on the ideological
goals of the international family planning community.
Medical experts have debunked the myth that promiscuity is the primary
cause of HIV transmission.(2) What the ideologues at USAID deny is medical
transmission is a leading cause of HIV, often in the form of injectable
contraception. They also deny that USAID flagrantly promotes promiscuity
with its family planning policy, while claiming to be against it in its
HIV policy.
For the population controllers at USAID, the myth that Africans are
promiscuous unto death dovetails nicely with efforts to lower the
fertility of African women, since USAID's AIDS relief programs have been
merged into population control programs. The sad truth is, USAID's family
planning programs in Africa have caused AIDS. The integration of AIDS
relief and family planning is a recipe for further disaster.
The USAID report is designed to generate a new policy for AIDS relief, a
policy which deflects the more proximate causes of HIV transmission. This
new policy is pitched as a "balanced, evidence based ABC approach" for
AIDS prevention; in other words, a policy which promotes condoms (C),
along with abstinence (A), and being faithful (B). Therefore, the policy
is weighted in favor of groups that promote condoms, population control
and the full arsenal of USAID reproductive health supplies, including
abortion. The policy is weighted against genuine faith-based groups that
refuse to push condoms.
Many genuine faith-based groups who wish to receive USAID funds to promote
abstinence-only AIDS prevention in Africa and the Caribbean, pursuant to
the five-year $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR), have complained they have been forced out of the grant
application process, or that the process is heavily biased against them.
The evidence speaks for itself. Favored population control groups that
promote injectable contraception, such as Family Health International,
have received hundreds of millions for more population control under the
guise of AIDS prevention. Truly faith-based groups have received a mere
pittance by comparison.(3)
Finally, the report ignores the fact that USAID's AIDS programs in Africa
involve "over-the-counter" (OTC) provisions of injectable Depo Provera,
and other injectible contraceptives. OTC Depo in developing nations
enables sexual promiscuity, and maims women.
OTC Depo-Provera is not FDA approved. However, USAID is able to promote
this dangerous method of population control by following lower medical
standards.
"For non-FDA approved products," USAID guidelines for international
pharmaceuticals asserts, "the WHO Certification Scheme on the Quality of
Pharmaceutical Products Moving in International Commerce should be
submitted."(4)
In short, USAID's new policy for AIDS relief seeks to lower rates of
sexual activity involving multiple sexual partnerships with mere words. In
its actions overseas, USAID promotes sexual promiscuity with OTC Depo and
other OTC injectables. USAID is wedded to Depo. Globally, USAID shipped
almost 10 million units of Depo overseas in 2000, (5) in conjunction with
social marketing often taking the form of so-called Depo festivals.(6)
It's time for USAID to get serious about AIDS relief. USAID cannot promote
fidelity in policy, and sexual promiscuity in practice.
ENDNOTES
1. "Partner reduction is crucial for balanced 'ABC' approach to HIV
prevention," BMJ, 10 April 2004.
2. http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?EID=552.
3. WORLD Magazine, "Putting money where his mouth isn't," by Priya
Abraham, March 27, 2004,
http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/03-27-04/international_1.asp.
4. USAID GUIDELINES FOR DONATING PHARMACEUTICALS AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES,
Undated.
5. http://ppd.phnip.com
6. http://www.jhuccp.org/info/photoshare.php?sp=&ref_crmb=&ref_id=&step=results&view=detail&detail_id=420-3&adv=pho
© 2004 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted.
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