House Recognizes National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day - Women's Congressional Policy Institute

On February 9, the House approved, 422-0, a resolution (H. Con. Res. 30) recognizing February 7, 2005, as “National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.” The resolution also encourages President Bush to emphasize the importance of addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African American community, especially among African American women.

Sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), the resolution cites a number of statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including:

In 2003, African Americans accounted for 50 percent of all new HIV infections, despite representing only about 12.3 percent of the population;
African American women represented 67 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases among women in 2003, and were 23 times more likely to be infected than white women;
The CDC estimates that 69 percent of all children born to HIV-infected mothers in 2003 were African American;
The leading cause of HIV infection among African American women is heterosexual contact, followed by intravenous drug use; and
HIV/AIDS was among the top three causes of death for African American men between the ages of 25 and 54, and African American women between the ages of 35 and 44.

Citing his experience as a physician before coming to Congress, Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) encouraged the promotion of HIV/AIDS prevention programs, with an emphasis on the ABC method: “A” for abstinence, “B” for being faithful, and “C” for condoms. He argued that in the United States “there is too much emphasis on the C and not enough on the A and the B, and I encourage all of my colleagues to look at what happened in Uganda in the 1980s, the late 1980s, and the early 1990s. They lowered their AIDS rate from 17 percent, 16 percent, down to about 5 or 6 percent with no condoms being shipped from Europe and other places…Faithfulness and marriage and abstinence education had a profound impact in Uganda. We need to stress that throughout the African continent; and most importantly, our pastors in the black communities need to start getting that out to their congregations and public health officials.”

Del. Donna Christensen (D-VI), also a physician, addressed “some of the threats that are increasing the risk of HIV and AIDS, especially among women. First are the cuts in the president’s budget in AIDS programs and all of health, but also the cuts in education, housing, and economic opportunity programs which all fuel the spread of this disease. Second is the misguided decision on the part of the department not to target funding of the small initiative to the indigenous community and faith-based organizations in the most severely impacted communities of color. We have to empower our communities to be able to affect change. Third is the ideological intrusion into good science and documented effective preventive practices. My colleagues, we cannot bury our heads in the sand and deny the effectiveness of condoms for the sexually active, and neither can you insist that abstinence-only programs be used when they ignore the reality of situations of the people who need to be protected and whose lives need to be saved.”