An HIV/AIDS-reduction program saving the lives of women and girls worldwide is at risk under Trump’s Global Gag Rule—and serves as a testament to the ground we can lose when data doesn’t drive drive policymaking.
Tag: AIDS
Donald Trump’s HIV/AIDS Advisory Council Members Resigned Because of His Policies
“We hope the members of Congress who have the power to affect healthcare reform will engage with us and other advocates in a way that the Trump Administration apparently will not.”
HIV Will Not Stop Me: Girls Speak Out on World AIDS Day
It’s been 32 years since HIV was first discovered. Since then, it’s fair to say that we have come a long way. Just slightly more than 2 million people were infected with HIV in 2013, down from more than 3.6 million in 1997, the epidemic’s height. Currently, approximately 15 million people are taking anti-retroviral drugs […]
“Safe” Sex with IUDs Is Not Safe Enough
An innovative study on birth control, published in the New England Journal of Medicine Oct. 2, was reported with such headlines as, “Free, long-acting contraceptives may greatly reduce teen pregnancy rate.” The three-year study of 1,400 teenage women who were offered various contraceptives at no cost showed that those who chose birth control pills, patches or rings were 22 times more […]
A New Generation of HIV/AIDS Activists is Born
I’m at the 20th International HIV/AIDS Conference in Melbourne this week. It brings together people from all around the world to join hands in continuing and expanding the fight against HIV/AIDS. For me, the conference has been a complete eye opener into a world I hadn’t previously known much about. I was born in 1996, the […]
Five Important Causes, Five Minutes of Your Time!
Help pass the MJIA, protect birth control coverage, sustain women’s gains in Afghanistan, fight AIDS with family planning, and teach GOP lawmakers a lesson – all without leaving the spot you’re in right now.
On World AIDS Day, A Reminder About Women and Children in the Epidemic
Yesterday marked the 25th annual World AIDS Day, an opportunity for people around the world to unite in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “We remember the friends and loved ones we have lost, stand with the estimated 35 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and renew our commitment to preventing the spread of this virus at home […]
We Need a Woman To Guide U.S. Global AIDS Programs
A decision is imminent about who will be the next head of U.S.-funded AIDS programs around the world—known as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. That person will be the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and ambassador at large—and the time is right for that person to be a woman. Women are at the […]
Black Women Imperiled as South Carolina Abandons HIV Prevention
As part of a documentary team researching the impact of HIV/AIDS on black women in the rural South, I have learned these dire facts: Eight of the 10 states with the most new cases of HIV infection and AIDS diagnoses are in the South. African Americans account for 46 percent of all HIV diagnoses, and […]
Kenyan Parliament Candidate Overcame HIV Stigma to Fight for Women’s Rights
During Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement in Kenya, a young Inviolata Mmbwavi stood by as the boys planted trees. Girls didn’t plant trees! Her mother thought, as did most Kenyan mothers at the time, that her daughter should be cooking. “You should be in the kitchen, you should be cleaning and scrubbing pots,” Mmbwavi remembers […]