Three years ago we knew from a parliamentary report that women trying to get men to abstain, be faithful and condomise (ABC) face rejection, beating and even death.
The joint monitoring committee report, How Best Can South Africa Address the Horrific Impact of HIV/Aids on Women and Girls?, stated that it was subordination and oppression of women and girls that has become the most urgent threat to public health.
Today we are taken back to the dark ages by United States President George W Bush’s policies on sexual reproductive health rights for women. US policy undermines the struggle for gender equality in dealing with HIV and Aids.
Safer sex messages and the fact that there is more information and condoms available have had an effect on controlling the further spread of HIV. But this has been restricted to particular sectors of society. The ABC message is of no use to those of us living in abusive relationships and who cannot negotiate safer sex.
On January 22 2001 Bush reimposed restrictions known as the “Global Gag Rule” (or the “Mexico City Policy”). This means that NGOs receiving funds from the US cannot use this money to provide legal abortion services, lobby their own governments for abortion law reform, or even provide meaningful medical counselling or referrals regarding abortion.
In January last year the Bush administration promised $15-billion over the next five years to alleviate the HIV epidemic. But the actual expenditure approved by the US Congress as part of this commitment for 2004 is only $2,4-billion.
In his 2004 State of the Union address Bush said that “abstinence is the only sure way to prevent sexual transmission of Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases”. He called for a new emphasis on abstinence-only education, and doubling the funding for abstinence-only programmes.
In South Africa organisations such as the Women’s Health Project and the Reproductive Rights Alliance — two organisations that have done pioneering work in leading the campaign for legislation protecting the right of women to choose to have a safe abortion — will suffer directly if the Bush gag rule severs their funding. Organisations in the rest of Africa have suddenly had to change their focus and have been forced to promote abstinence as a way of ensuring that they qualify for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.
This is the approach of the Bush administration, which uses fundamentalist religious views and conservative arguments about morality to preach abstinence.
There is no evidence to suggest that teaching about condoms increases sexual activity, nor that it increases unprotected sex, yet evidence exists, which shows abstinence-only education increases both.
The problem with the ABC message is just how realistic is it to preach abstinence and being faithful? It is not based on the reality of the situation, which is one of high levels of violence against women and other forms of gender imbalances. So, in place of effective, disease-preventing safe-sex education, organisations are focusing on denouncing condom use, while teaching abstinence as the only way to prevent the spread of Aids to ensure that it gets funds from the US.
We must change our campaigns on prevention. The messages do not fit reality. We need campaigns that address changing men’s attitude about sex.
We need to talk more openly about the fact that sex is pleasurable and is about respect for the needs of both partners. Sexual health messages cannot be reduced to focusing on the mechanical need to stop the spread of HIV and Aids.
We must acknowledge that people have sex, that we enjoy sex. Working from that premise we can focus on reducing high risk sexual behaviour as opposed to stopping sexual practices.We also need an international campaign to focus on the demands of poor women, who bear the brunt of debauched policies like those of the Bush administration.
We have to be more vocal in our opposition to what Bush deems as a priority with respect to allocation of limited resources. The American people cannot allow Bush to serve another term in office.
Sharon Ekambaram is the advocacy officer for the social transformation programme in the Aids Consortium