UN Criticizes Bush on AIDS and Abstinence

For moral and religious rather than scientific reasons, the Bush administration has been pushing abstinence as the solution for fighting AIDS - even to the point of under-emphasizing condom usage. This has led to increasing criticism around the world.

The Guardian reports:

Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, said US cuts in funding for condoms and an emphasis on promoting abstinence had contributed to a shortage of condoms in Uganda, one of the few African countries which has succeeded in reducing its infection rate.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the condom crisis in Uganda is being driven by [US policies]," Mr Lewis said yesterday. "To impose a dogma-driven policy that is fundamentally flawed is doing damage to Africa."

It seems clear that conservative Christian beliefs are not only becoming an impediment to fighting AIDS, but may in fact lead to far more human suffering and deaths than would otherwise occur. They are, quite frankly, willing to accept more people dying in the hopes that they will adhere to narrow conceptions of sexual morality.

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