Barbara Lee Introduces Bill to Reduce Women and Girls’ Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS
(Washington DC) – Last night, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection in developing countries and eliminate the requirement that thirty-three percent of AIDS prevention funds be spent for abstinence-only programs.
“There is no reason why someone should be more vulnerable to AIDS because she is a woman, but the fact remains that women and girls in developing countries are bearing the brunt of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic,” said Lee. “Our prevention efforts must be sensitive to the growing gender disparity and must focus on providing women and girls the education and resources they need to protect themselves.”
An estimated 39.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world today. In sub-Saharan Africa, women make up sixty percent of those infected and seventy-six percent of infections among those fifteen to twenty-four years old.
H.R. 1713, The Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth (PATHWAY) Act of 2007, introduced by Lee, along with Republican Chris Shays of Connecticut, would require the president to address twelve key issues that contribute to gender disparities in the rate of HIV infection.
The key issues the administration must address under the PATHWAY Act include the social and cultural factors that contribute to women’s vulnerability, such as lack of access to prevention methods, the stigma attached to HIV, as well as discrimination against women, and lack of education.
Some of the specific proposals in the bill include increasing access to female condoms; reducing the incidence of cross generational sex and early/child-marriage; reducing violence against women; supporting the development of micro-enterprise and job training programs; expanding educational opportunities; protecting property and inheritance rights; coordinating HIV prevention services with existing health care services; promoting gender equality; and encouraging the creation and enforcement of equal rights for women.
The bill also amends the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 by striking the thirty-three percent earmark for “abstinence-until-marriage” programs. According to a 2006 GAO report, the thirty-three percent funding requirement for abstinence programs has forced country offices to cut funding for comprehensive HIV prevention programs, including prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.
Lee’s accomplishments in promoting effective, bipartisan measures to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and bring treatment to the infected have earned her recognition both at home and abroad as a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Lee was a leader in the bipartisan effort to designate $15 billion for the prevention, care, and treatment of HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria and she authored the bill to establish the framework for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS. In 2005, she successfully passed and the President signed into law legislation to focus U.S. foreign assistance on the impact of AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children in developing countries.
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