More Work to Be Done on AIDS Relief

Friday, March 21, 2008

Regarding Michael Gerson's March 12 op-ed, "The AIDS Relief Miracle":

While it's heartening to see the reauthorization of the global AIDS bill receive coverage by a Post columnist, Mr. Gerson's equating "aggressive family planning" with abortion is appalling, if not dangerous, to the many women and men who want to prevent the spread of AIDS and plan their families responsibly.

The United Methodist Church, for which I work, believes that families have the right to decide when they have their children and that women and men have the right to use condoms, a family planning resource, to prevent the spread of disease. Any notion that family planning is really just abortion is false.

I suggest that Mr. Gerson learn more about this practice and begin advocating for its use, especially given the recent statistic that one in four girls in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease [Metro, March 13].

LINDA BALES

Director

Louise and Hugh Moore Population Project

General Board of Church & Society

United Methodist Church

Washington

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During the past five years, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief helped increase the number of people on treatment to 1.4 million in Africa -- a laudable achievement. However, this does not alter the fact that for every person put on treatment, six people are newly infected. The idea that we don't need to redouble our prevention efforts divorces logic from reality.

Some of our own government agencies project that the addition of family planning services could double the effectiveness of programs that prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Unfortunately, family planning services for HIV-positive women were sacrificed on the altar of political expediency during congressional consideration of the global HIV-AIDS programs.

KATE BOURNE

Vice President

Programs International

Women's Health Coalition

New York