The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR, an international initiative to which 25 million people owe their lives, is now in danger of being shut down because of US domestic politics involving abortion debates. Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR has provided $100 billion across 50 countries by providing millions of courses of life-saving HIV medicines, collecting invaluable data on the disease, and creating strong diplomatic ties with foreign powers. All of this is now at risk of being shut down because of claims that the program has propped up abortion providers (The Washington Post).
These claims are said to be baseless by health advocates, Democrats, and PEPFAR officials (The Washington Post). To put it in the words of Shepherd Smith, a co-founder of the Children’s AIDS Fund International, “It’s just dumbfounding to me that the charge has been taken seriously.” Republicans, however, argue that PEPFAR has been hijacked by President Joe Biden to promote abortion in other parts of the world. While Democrats have been pushing for a five-year reauthorization of the program, Republicans wanted a one-year reauthorization with explicit abortion restrictions.
One of the main arguments used by Republicans is that the PEPFAR direction and guidance documents made mentions of improving “sexual and reproductive health.” PEPFAR responded to these arguments in its footnotes, saying, “In the context of PEPFAR, [sexual and reproductive health] services refers to four areas.” It then lists prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and access to condoms; education and care around sexually transmitted infections; cervical cancer screening and treatment; and prevention of gender-based violence. “PEPFAR does not fund abortions, consistent with long-standing legal restrictions on the use of foreign assistance funding related to abortion”(The Washington Post).
These debates have angered democratic leaders like Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In an interview, Menendez said that the HIV program helped the US to establish diplomatic ties in a place where China has been extending its influence everywhere for years. He also said that none of the people he met on his travel to Africa would be alive if PEPFAR didn’t exist. But the issue at hand is not just about the program now, as KFF’s Kates said, “It’s really about the larger politics around abortion, electoral politics and the partisan divide” (The Washington Post).
Link to article: https://eb18600f7bb2916037f5ee8e636ce199.cdn.bubble.io/f1690728430819x275369979467293700/Lifesaving%20PEPFAR%20program%20faces%20a%20new%20threat_%20U.S.%20abortion%20politics%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
These claims are said to be baseless by health advocates, Democrats, and PEPFAR officials (The Washington Post). To put it in the words of Shepherd Smith, a co-founder of the Children’s AIDS Fund International, “It’s just dumbfounding to me that the charge has been taken seriously.” Republicans, however, argue that PEPFAR has been hijacked by President Joe Biden to promote abortion in other parts of the world. While Democrats have been pushing for a five-year reauthorization of the program, Republicans wanted a one-year reauthorization with explicit abortion restrictions.
One of the main arguments used by Republicans is that the PEPFAR direction and guidance documents made mentions of improving “sexual and reproductive health.” PEPFAR responded to these arguments in its footnotes, saying, “In the context of PEPFAR, [sexual and reproductive health] services refers to four areas.” It then lists prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and access to condoms; education and care around sexually transmitted infections; cervical cancer screening and treatment; and prevention of gender-based violence. “PEPFAR does not fund abortions, consistent with long-standing legal restrictions on the use of foreign assistance funding related to abortion”(The Washington Post).
These debates have angered democratic leaders like Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In an interview, Menendez said that the HIV program helped the US to establish diplomatic ties in a place where China has been extending its influence everywhere for years. He also said that none of the people he met on his travel to Africa would be alive if PEPFAR didn’t exist. But the issue at hand is not just about the program now, as KFF’s Kates said, “It’s really about the larger politics around abortion, electoral politics and the partisan divide” (The Washington Post).
Link to article: https://eb18600f7bb2916037f5ee8e636ce199.cdn.bubble.io/f1690728430819x275369979467293700/Lifesaving%20PEPFAR%20program%20faces%20a%20new%20threat_%20U.S.%20abortion%20politics%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
