[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 185 (Wednesday, December 5, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14798-S14799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REID (for Mrs. Clinton):
  S. 2415. A bill to require the President and the Office of the Global 
AIDS Coordinator to establish a comprehensive and integrated HIV 
prevention strategy to address the vulnerabilities of women and girls 
in countries for which the United States provides assistance to combat 
HIV/AIDS, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce the Protection 
Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth, PATHWAY, Act of 2007, 
legislation that is a companion to the bill introduced by 
Representative Barbara Lee.
  Women and girls account for about half of the 33 million infections 
worldwide. But in the places that are hardest hit by epidemic, AIDS has 
a disproportionate impact upon women. In sub-Saharan Africa, women 
account for more than 60 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS. Young 
women account for 3 out of every 4 new HIV infections among sub-Saharan 
youth. Our prevention messages are not reaching youth--in studies 
completed in 17 countries in 2003, more than 75 percent of the young 
women surveyed could not identify ways to protect themselves against 
HIV infection.
  Clearly, we need to do more to stem the rising tide of HIV infection 
in women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. But what doing more 
requires is an examination of the factors that contribute to women's 
vulnerability to HIV infection. There are links between gender-based 
violence and increased risk for HIV infection, links between lack of 
education and economic opportunity and increased risk for HIV 
infection, links between human trafficking and sexual exploitation and 
increased risk for HIV infection.
  Unfortunately, our current policies do not allow us to take these 
factors into account. The law governing funding of the President's 
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, requires \1/3\ of all 
prevention funding to be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs. 
In addition, a 2005 guidance from the Office of the Global AIDS 
Coordinator found that countries were directed to spend half of their 
prevention funds on sexual transmission prevention, with a full \2/3\ 
of that funding to be spent on ``abstinence and be faithful'' programs, 
rather than comprehensive HIV prevention education efforts.
  More than 40 percent of women in Africa and South Asia are married 
before the age of 18. Directing funding to abstinence-until-marriage 
programs fails to address their needs. Exhorting them to ``be 
faithful'' in relationships where they may not have control over their 
partners' behavior is short-sighted. Making it the official policy of 
the U.S. Government to restrict funding for efforts that could help 
these women learn about female-controlled prevention methods is 
unconscionable.
  In 2003, President Bush pledged to prevent 7 million new HIV 
infections through PEPFAR. But we cannot let that promise go unmet due 
to ideology.
  The legislation I am introducing today will lift restrictions on 
funding

[[Page S14799]]

for our prevention efforts. It will also require the President to 
develop and implement a coordinated, comprehensive HIV strategy to 
address gender disparities in HIV infection, with a focus on the stigma 
surrounding HIV, the links between gender-based violence and HIV 
infection, the ways in which increasing educational and economic 
opportunities for women can prevent HIV infection, and ways in which to 
improve access to female-controlled prevention methods. This strategy 
is a step forward--one that can ensure that the disproportionate risks 
faced by too many women are taken into account in our global AIDS 
efforts.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that women's 
vulnerability to HIV infection is addressed as we work to reauthorize 
PEPFAR.
                                 ______