I am writing to urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 5674, the Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth (PATHWAY) Act of 2006 introduced by Congresswoman Barbara Lee.
Please build on your previous record of rejecting ideologically-driven, ineffective approaches to fighting HIV/AIDS by supporting the PATHWAY Act which will channel funding to prevention programs that are PROVEN to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. The PATHWAY Act will also require the development of a comprehensive strategy to combat the spread of HIV among women and children, an increasingly vulnerable population.
A Government Accountability Office report released in May found that the Bush administration's abstinence-only-until-marriage funding requirement is not only causing confusion in many countries, but is actually preventing HIV/AIDS programs from helping the people that are most at risk and in most need of help.
In order to comply with this funding requirement, programs have had to reduce funding for essential Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programming, as well as programs for people with the highest risk of contracting HIV - sexually active youth, truckers, sex workers, and couples in which one partner is HIV negative and the other is HIV positive.
The report states that eight of the seventeen country programs surveyed have found that the policy "compromises the integration of their programs."
The PATHWAY Act will allow countries to develop HIV/AIDS prevention programs that respond to their unique needs rather than arbitrary quotas for ineffective abstinence-only programs that are diverting desperately-needed resources from those programs that are effective in preventing the spread of the virus.
I strongly urge you to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and children in the world's most AIDS-ravaged countries by co-sponsoring the PATHWAY Act.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Because free choice does indeed save lives.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Yup."\\
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