Take Action - AIDS Funding Senatometer
April 8th, 2008 at 12:07 pm | posted by Aaron.BanksOur petition to ask your senators to co-sponsor the reauthorization of PEPFAR is live. Urge your senator to sign on today.
PEPFAR, America’s response to the global emergency of AIDS, malaria and TB, has already passed in the House with bipartisan support, 308 to 116, last month.
Now we’re trying to reach 50 co-sponsors for this legislation in the Senate. That level of support will help guarantee passage of this bill to increase funding - for proven solutions to these deadly but treatable diseases - from the $15 billion spent during the last five years to $50 billion for the next five.
We’ve set an aggressive goal of 50 Senate co-sponsors and we’ll be updating the blog and our “senatometer” regularly with the new signers.
The current co-sponsors are below. If you don’t see your senators’ name, send them a petition today.
Current Co-sponsors
Joe Biden (D-DE)
Richard Lugar (R-IN)
4 /8/08 11:30a.m.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Doesn’t PEPFAR2008 remove the abstinance education requirement? I kind of like the idea of teaching abstinance as a method of HIV/AIDS prevention. Why would we want this bill to pass with that change? Isn’t abstinance the only 100% proven method of prevention? Is it wise to remove the abstinance education from the program?
April 8th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Sam while technically you are right the fact of the matter is that you are never going to get people to stop having sex and working within that context Africa needs sex education and condoms not abstinence education. Ideally both would be taught for different reasons.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
We can’t let partisan fights get in the way of effective AIDS fighting.
Also, just to add some more information- abstinance education have been shown to be extremely ineffective in fighting AIDS while ARVs and other aspects of PEPFAR have been extremely effective.
PEPFAR is one of the most successful poverty-fighting programs in the world. I’m thrilled to play a role in expanding it for 5 more years.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Many African women do not have the choice of abstaining. They have to submit to their husbands.