Planned Parenthood: Agenda in the U.S Global HIV/AIDS Response Endangers Lives

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 -- The Planned Parenthood Federation of America issued the following statement by Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy Dana Singiser:

* * *

Planned Parenthood Federation of America condemns the Trump-Pence administration's continued attacks on the world's most vulnerable communities with the White House's latest guidance affirming the expansion of the global gag rule and prioritizing abstinence-only education in PEPFAR, the U.S program dedicated to the global HIV/AIDS response.

"The Trump-Pence administration is once again pushing an extreme ideology that threatens public health by undermining vital gains in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. In recent years, progress has included significant declines in new HIV diagnoses among adolescent girls and young women for the first time in the history of the epidemic. Legitimizing and prioritizing abstinence-only education in the global HIV/AIDS response threatens to undo that progress and discourages the many organizations supported by PEPFAR that advance comprehensive, evidence-based programs to prevent HIV/AIDS. Research clearly shows that abstinence-only education does not work. And policy that is driven by extreme ideology is not just ineffective -- it can be deadly."