Dobson Calls for Quick Senate Action on Global AIDS Bill

Focus on the Family
Wednesday, 14 May 2003

Pro-Family Leader Challenges Liberals to End Political Games

Dr. James Dobson, president and founder of Focus on the Family, urged the Senate to pass the House version of the Global AIDS bill today. The pro-family leader, along with other prominent evangelicals such as Charles Colson and Franklin Graham, signed a letter that urged the Senate to move quickly on this legislation. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, with the support of Foreign Relations Committee Chair Sen. Richard Lugar, plans to bring the Hyde/Lantos bill to the floor by the end of the week.

"President Bush deserves praise for his leadership and efforts to provide real solutions to the millions of AIDS sufferers in Africa," Dobson said. "We cannot continue to offer this country the same faulty ideology that has increased sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy among our own young people."

The Hyde/Lantos bill, H.R. 1298, earmarks at least one-third of prevention funds for abstinence programs.

Dobson held out the recent successes in Uganda as an example of the effectiveness of abstinence, not condoms, as a true preventative in stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Uganda once had the highest HIV infection rate in the world, but after launching an aggressive program prioritizing abstinence, the infection rate plummeted by as much at 70 percent, courtesy of a two-year delay in the onset of sexual activity among young people. Estimates from the United Nations and the U.S. Census Bureau show that HIV has dropped from 15 percent of the population in 1991 to 5 percent in 2001—nearly the lowest in southeastern and eastern Africa. In addition, a study in a British medical journal, the Lancet, reports that Uganda has the lowest condom-use rate in Sub-Saharan Africa — negating the claims of condom proponents that condom used caused the reduction in HIV/AIDS.

The bill also contains a conscience clause allowing faith-based groups to receive funding without being forced to participate in the distribution of condoms.

Dobson added, "We urge liberals to resist the temptation to play politics with a bill that represents a landmark effort to end this deadly plague. The bi-partisan Global AIDS bill passed by the House will save lives and we urge the Senate to affirm this and get it to the President quickly."

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