HIV Rates Among Sex Workers Climbs … As some American politicians and AIDS advocates continue to bury their heads in the sand of ignorance and denial about the need for more aid to combat HIV among sex workers, news from Uganda indicates that the infection rate continues to climb. Congress is considering the reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as conservatives complain about money, and some AIDS advocates think that money is all that is important, not program effectiveness. The reality comes in this report from AllAfrica.com,

The rate at which HIV/AIDS is spread among sex
workers has increased from 24% to 48% over the last five years,
according to the head of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Dr. David Kihumuro
Apuuli.

The rapid increase in cases of new HIV
infections is because the trade is illegal and there is low
self-protective behaviour among prostitutes, he added. Speaking at the HIV/AIDS implementers meeting in
Kampala, Apuuli noted that sex was still the leading channel through
which HIV/AIDS is spread, accounting for 76% of new infections.

Casual
sex or premarital sex, mainly among the young people, contributes to
14% of new infections, he added. Apuuli said the second leading cause
of new HIV infections was the mother-to-child-transmission.

 

Comprehensive Sexuality Education Debated … In Utah, a teacher has been put on administrative leave pending review of complaints from parents about how she taught sex ed. While education officials insist the complaints are rare, it is giving the local media an opportunity to explore the differences in views on sex ed.

"Parents need to open their eyes and stop being naive about what they think their child may or may not know," she said. Armenta, a 28-year-old tire company employee living in West
Valley City, wants her daughter to know all about human reproduction,
contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. The human sexuality portion of her daughter’s health class at
Scott M. Matheson Junior High School in Magna didn’t cut it. "She said
it didn’t make sense to her – what was taught – but she wasn’t ready to
have ‘the talk,’ either," Armenta said. In contrast, Michelle Skousen, whose 14-year-old daughter
attends Fort Herriman Middle School, was aghast that her daughter’s
human sexuality teacher allegedly broached the topic of oral sex in
response to a student’s question, informing the class that the practice
not only results in lost virginity, but can transmit sexual diseases.

 

The LA Times explores peer education counseling through the eyes of one young woman in South Central who has been teaching sex-ed since she was 12 and a friend of hers became pregnant.

Andreina’s work is anchored in Planned Parenthood’s Ujima Program,
which preaches more abstinence and less sex. At least "until you know
what you’re getting into and the consequences," Andreina said.

The program was launched in 2002 after research indicated that teens
were more likely to feel comfortable discussing sex with peers instead
of parents, said Mary-Jane Waglé, president and chief executive of
Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.

Andreina "understands the experience of teens in her area, she has
lived there, and she understands what they are going through," Waglé
said. "Her knowing all that firsthand gives her authority to be a
leader and get people to listen."

 

An opinion piece in the Ventura County Star advocates for comprehensive sex ed over abstinence-only-until-marriage programs this way:

Fortunately, California is one of the few states that has declined
federal funding for abstinence-only programs in order to promote more
effective and comprehensive sex education.

However, that does not mean that abstinence programs do not exist
within the state. The best way to make sure students are protected, and
not made more vulnerable by ineffective and wasteful policies, is to
make sure school districts do what they are meant to do — teach rather
than censor.

 

Reproductive Health Politics … As Senator Hillary Clinton officially concluded her campaign on Saturday, media continue to explore the role women voters who supported her will play in the upcoming election. From USA Today,

In interviews last week before Clinton formally
bowed out, Obama talked about his plans to make college affordable and
for health coverage — just two issues of concern to many female voters.

"For that 45-year-old woman who is trying to
figure out ‘How am I going to send my kid to college?’ I’ve got a plan
to make college more affordable. John McCain doesn’t," he said in an
interview Thursday on CNN. The two candidates also differ on abortion —
Obama supports abortion rights; McCain does not — which will be an
issue in future Supreme Court appointments, Obama said.

"There’s nothing to get you over grief so much
as getting you mad," says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. "And once
(female voters) focus on McCain and his record on women, they’re going
to get mad."

Ellen Malcolm, president of EMILY’s List, which
supports Democratic women who favor abortion rights, also predicts
Clinton supporters will jump to Obama — in time. "The vast majority of
Democratic women will go through their own process and conclude that
they want Barack Obama in the White House," she says.

 

Today’s New York Times reports that Evangelicals are still wary of McCain, and this weekend, in an interview on Beliefnet.com, Mark DeMoss, a leading consultant to many far-right religious-political advocates suggests that Sen. Barack Obama could receive as much as 40 percent of the Evangelical vote this fall.

If one third of white evangelicals voted for Bill Clinton the second
time, at the height of Monica Lewinsky mess—that’s a statistic I didn’t
believe at first but I double and triple checked it—I would not be
surprised if that many or more voted for Barack Obama in this election.
You’re seeing some movement among evangelicals as the term
[evangelical] has become more pejorative. There’s a reaction among some
evangelicals to swing out to the left in an effort to prove that
evangelicals are really not that right wing. There’s some concern that
maybe Republicans haven’t done that well. And there’s this fascination
with Barack Obama. So I will not be surprised if he gets one third of
the evangelical vote. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 40-percent.

 

In Virginia, GOP Senate nominee and former Governor Jim Gilmore, an arch conservative, is taking heat from even more conservative elements in the party there over his seat on Barr Laboratories Board of Directors. Barr produces Plan B emergency contraception, and Gilmore is under fire as a result from anti-choice forces, prompting his campaign to clarify a fact that many anti-choicers continue to ignore,
"The Plan B pill … is a contraceptive, not an abortion pill." Once conservatives start correcting the misinformation of anti-choicers, you know we’re making progress.