Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Associated Press - Tuesday October 1, 2002
Laura Meckler, Associated Press Writer
They argue that the administration is hostile to HIV prevention and sex education that is not based on "abstinence-only," which discourages all sex before marriage and bars discussion of the benefits of birth control or condom use.
The advocacy groups said Monday they are particularly concerned about federal agency audits of AIDS groups now under way, examining their finances and programming.
"It's a campaign to censor science and research, and it's a campaign to use government auditors to intimidate opponents of the administration on key policy issues," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a group that promotes education about birth control and condom use.
The administration says it is simply making sure that tax dollars are properly spent.
"We're looking at ourselves to see what we need to do to be efficient and effective," said Claude Allen, deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. He called any suggestion of a witch hunt laughable.
Advocates point to a series of actions in the last year:
-Information explaining the effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV transmission has been pulled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. Also gone: a section called "programs that work," which focused on HIV and highlighted several proven programs that involve condom use.
-HHS is conducting a broad management review its AIDS spending, ordered by HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. That includes grants to outside groups and includes prevention, treatment and research. Allen said he did not know of any other HHS-funded programs that are undergoing similar scrutiny.
-The HHS inspector general is investigating at least eight AIDS programs to see if their content is too sexually explicit or promotes sexual activity. Several of those reports are expected by year's end.
The inspector general already issued one report highly critical of Stop AIDS in San Francisco, saying their programs aimed at gay men were promoting sex and were possibly obscene. For instance, it pointed to program called "Great Sex Workshop," which examined ways of reducing the spread of HIV but also explored sex that was "safe, erotic, fun and satisfying."
A follow-up report on Stop AIDS is expected soon, and an administration official said it is expected it to find that the group made several positive changes to its programming. Members of Congress also have twice asked HHS to further investigate AIDS groups.
In July, a group of Republicans asked HHS to examine whether the protesters at the international AIDS conference in Barcelona had used tax dollars to finance their trips. They also complained that the conference did not focus sufficiently on the role of religious groups in HIV prevention.
Thompson responded that his staff has brought concerns about religious groups to the conference organizers. But he said it would be too difficult to unravel the funding that various AIDS groups used absent a more specific complaint.
This month, a second group of House Republicans asked Thompson whether organizations lobbying against additional money for abstinence-only programs were using federal funds for such lobbying.
Thompson has yet to respond, but the groups say their lobbying activities are kept strictly separate from their federally funded work.
On Wednesday, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States plans to release a poll showing overwhelming support among parents for comprehensive sexuality education.
AIDS groups say the administration's focus on abstinence is having a chilling effect on other AIDS programming.
"There is a fear out in the community that if they produce something or say something inappropriate, or what is deemed as inappropriate, they will lose their funding," said Mary Ann Green of Florida AIDS Action.
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