Court Rules U.S. Can Deny Funding to AIDS Groups
The government has the right to require nonprofit groups that distribute federal AIDS funding to oppose prostitution and sex trafficking. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Bush administration has the right to deny U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding to DKT International. The group, which receives federal AIDS funding, refused to sign a pledge to oppose the practices, because it supplies condoms to prostitutes in Vietnam. Federal Appeals Judge Raymond Randolph ruled the government was within its rights to require such pledges from all contractors who provide help for HIV/AIDS victims as part of the administration's $15 billion AIDS program.
The Christian Medical Association (CMA) raised the issue last year in a letter to the president, signed by more than 100 women's, health and policy organizations, urging Bush to protect victims of sexual trafficking by upholding the policy. "Incredible as it seems, there are groups out there that, instead of rescuing these sex slaves, employ a so-called 'harm reduction' approach of simply distributing condoms or advice," said CMA president Dr. David Stevens. "We totally support the government's policy, which promotes an abolitionist approach that opposes prostitution as inherently harmful and degrading, and actively supports the rescue and restoration of sexually exploited individuals." (Citizen Link)
• Father, we offer up our praises that finally, something makes sense. We thank You for this ruling. Now, Lord, we pray for an intervention on behalf of these women and men, girls and boys, exploited for sexual purposes. We ask, Lord, for You to deliver them from their captivity, and have vengence against those who would cause these young bodies, Temples of Your Holy Spirit, to be used in such a way.
• For He said, "Surely, they are My people, Sons who will not deal falsely. " So He became their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them." (Isaiah 63:8-10)
