- Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Family Planning
- Women, Girls, and HIV
- Maternal Health
- U.S. Foreign Policy & Funding
- Watch: Making U.S. Foreign Assistance Work for Women and Girls in Ethiopia
- Global Health Initiative
- Integrating HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health: U.S. Foreign Policy
- Female Condoms: Dual Protection
- Global Gag Rule
- Helms Amendment
- Foreign Assistance Budget
- Foreign Assistance Reform
- Kemp-Kasten Amendment
- Abstinence & Fidelity
- Anti-Prostitution Pledge
- The Critical Role of Advocacy in Foreign Assistance
- Why Women and Girls?
Anti-Prostitution Pledge
U.S. policy requires all organizations that receive HIV/AIDS funding to explicitly oppose prostitution. Requiring organizations to adopt policies like an anti-prostitution pledge makes it extremely difficult to establish trust necessary to provide services to these hard-to-reach men and women in prostitution, further driving them underground and away from life-saving services for themselves as well as others. Moreover, increasing condom use among sex workers requires direct engagement, training, demonstrations of correct use, training on negotiating with clients, and collective action among sex workers, all of which could potentially be considered under the policy as “promoting prostitution.”
In the field, the policy has not resulted in a single documented positive result. To the contrary, advocates have documented numerous examples of the harmful effects of the pledge, which can endanger the lives of sex workers, their clients, and their families. While some organizations sign the pledge and continue with their work as before, others have ended or curtailed their work with sex workers to avoid potential problems.
Additional resources:
- Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and the Sex Sector: Human Rights for All. Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and the American University Washington College of Law, October 2010.
- Implications of U.S. Policy Restrictions for HIV Programs Aimed at Commercial Sex Workers. Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), August 2008.
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August 17, 2010
Related Publications
- Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the U.S. Global Health Initiative
The U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI) is a comprehensive policy approach that seeks to strengthen, streamline, and increase the efficiency of existing U.S. global health funding programs—to achieve greater impact with every dollar. - What Does Family Planning Have to do With HIV? Everything.
Voluntary family planning is an indispensible component of HIV prevention and treatment. - Fact Sheet: Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011
The Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011 provides that the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act cannot impose eligibility restrictions on international recipients of U.S. aid that would be illegal if imposed nationally. Would constitute a legislative repeal of the Mexico City Policy, also called the Global Gag Rule. - Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women’s Health
Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women's Health, summarizes U.S. support for female condoms, identifies barriers, and offers concrete recommendations for improving U.S. efforts to increase access and availability of female condoms. - Fact Sheet: Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act
The Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act (H.R. 1319) establishes U.S. policy and authorizes assistance to support universal access to sexual and reproductive health care in developing countries, including contraception and safe abortion. - Policy Recommendations: Married Women and HIV: Comprehensive Prevention
In the absence of community-based efforts to alter the social structures that promote infidelity, public health programs which aim to reduce married women’s risk by telling men to be faithful will not succeed. - Research Summary: Marital Sex and the HIV Risk for Women Worldwide
Globally, women’s risk of contracting HIV is heightened if they are married, largely due to men’s extramarital sexual relationships. Despite this clear risk, current efforts to prevent the spread of HIV fall far short of protecting married women. - Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and the Sex Sector
Current U.S. foreign policy relating to adults in the sex sector violates basic human rights, distracts from effective anti-trafficking efforts, and directly impedes global health programs intended to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.
Related Links
- Americans for UNFPA
- Center for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA)
- Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR)
- ForeignAssistance.gov
- International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
- International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC)
- Ipas
- PEPFAR Watch
- Population Action International (PAI)
- Prevention Now!
- Reproductive Health Matters
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