What to make of it ? Birth control no solution for AIDS. U.S.

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum members,

Can anyone make any heads and tails out this news? I am worried now that

they actually want young people to die. Population control in disguise?

Please respond my American Friends.

Love

Maitreya

E-mail: <maitreya@...>

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Birth control no solution for AIDS, U.S. argues

American decision creates unlikely alliance with Islamic

nations, DOUG SAUNDERS writes. By DOUG SAUNDERS

Wednesday, May 8, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A7

NEW YORK -- The United States has joined an unlikely

behind-the-scenes alliance on social issues with fundamentalist

Islamic nations and the Vatican to oppose birth control as a

solution to AIDS, as the United Nations prepares to meet today to

consider a global plan to improve the conditions of children.

The informal coalition forced 164 nations yesterday to engage in

last-minute negotiations to work out a joint statement on the eve

of the UN General Assembly's special session on children.

Negotiators for other countries said U.S. officials had argued in

private meetings yesterday that they would not sign any agreement

that promoted birth control, even as a solution to the world's

AIDS crisis. American representatives have said that the only

solution to AIDS they will acknowledge or fund is sexual

abstinence, both before and during marriage.

The U.S. argued its position as part of a negotiating group with

Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan and the Vatican's Holy See, according

to officials from aid organizations and national delegations.

Most UN members, including Canada, have supported a version of the

agreement that advocates making birth control and safe-sex

education available to adolescents. Even the predominantly

Catholic nations of Central and South America had backed a text

that supports birth control.

Even with the changes, many observers feared the United States

would either not sign the international statement on Friday, when

the conference is due to end, or would join other nations in

signing it with written reservations. The U.S. has avoided

endorsing previous agreements on children's rights, including the

1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, because they

contradict U.S. policies.

The United States has joined other nations in opposing the notion

of children's rights, arguing that children should be considered

property of their parents, but this position did not become part

of this week's negotiations, aid organization members said.

Delegates said that " everything except reproductive health " had

been agreed upon by member nations. The document also mentions

child labour, children serving as soldiers, the trafficking of

children, health care, poverty and education.

Much of the U.S. opposition has been led by Helms, the

Republican senator who has also made the UN his bête noir.

Yesterday, speaking through a spokesman from his hospital bed, he

said he was " highly skeptical " of this week's declaration.

Mr. Helms has worked actively to reform the U.S. foreign aid

program, to exclude work that deals with adolescent and youth

sexuality.

Over the past six years the U.S. has spent $500-million (U.S.) on

foreign-aid programs based on sexual abstinence.

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