Restoration of Family Planning Funding ‘Essential’ to Success of Global AIDS Initiative, Opinion Piece Says
President Bush's decision to block U.S. funding for the United Nations Population Fund is evidence of a misunderstanding of the link between international family planning programs and the success of U.S. development priorities, such as the global AIDS initiative, Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the International Center for Research on Women, writes in a Newport News Daily Press opinion piece. International family planning programs can "play a central role in ensuring that these initiatives are successful in stemming the spread of the pandemic," as research conducted by ICRW has shown that women's vulnerability to HIV increases when reproductive health services are not available, she says. Therefore, increased funding for such services is "essential" to the fight against AIDS, and Congress must approve such funding, Rao Gupta says, concluding, "Any other decision would sacrifice good public health policy to narrow ideological politics" (Rao Gupta, Newport News Daily Press, 10/9).
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