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<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western"> <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5185219-111023,00.html"
eudora="autourl"><br>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5185219-111023,00.html</a><br>
<br>
<font size="5"><b>Brazil spurns US terms for Aids help<br>
<br>
</b></font><b><font size="2">Sarah Boseley and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington<br>
Wednesday May 4, 2005<br>
<br>
Guardian<br>
</font></b><font size="2">Brazil yesterday became the first country to take
a public stand against the Bush administration's massive Aids programme which
is seen by many as seeking increasingly to press its anti-abortion, pro-abstinence
sexual agenda on poorer countries. <br>
<br>
Campaigners applauded Brazil's rejection of $40m for its Aids programmes
because it refuses to agree to a declaration condemning prostitution. <br>
<br>
The government and many Aids organisations believe such a declaration would
be a serious barrier to helping sex workers protect themselves and their
clients from infection. <br>
<br>
The demand from the US administration, heavily influenced by the religious
right, follows what is known as the "global gag" - a ban on US government
funds to any foreign-based organisation which has links to abortion. This
has resulted in the removal of millions of dollars of funding from family
planning clinics worldwide. <br>
<br>
Yesterday Pedro Chequer, the director of Brazil's HIV/Aids programme, said
the government had managed to resist US pressure during negotiations on the
Aids funding to focus on promoting abstinence and fidelity rather than condoms
- another ideological battle being waged by the religious right. But the
US negotiators insisted that the clause on prostitution had to stay. <br>
<br>
[snip]</font><font size="1">Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005<br>
<br>
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<br>
good for them....Joanna<br>
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