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August
7, 2002, 9:00 a.m.
Aiding
Africa
A compassionate
policy conservatives should support.
By Rick Santorum
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IDS kills millions of children in the Third World every year, and conservatives
can't turn a blind eye. Worldwide, close to 2,000 babies are infected
with HIV every day, during pregnancy, birth, or through breastfeeding.
Most of those infected will die before their 5th birthday. The ones who
are not infected will grow up as orphans when their parents die of AIDS.
Traditionally perceived
as ruthlessly capitalist, bereft of any compassion for others, conservatives
are proving liberals aren't the only ones who care. Conservatives see
the need to stop the spread of AIDS among infants in the Third World as
a priority, not only to save the lives of innocent children, but for the
future survival of these countries. One-third of the entire Third World
population will die of AIDS by the end of this century. Strong, healthy
children will be needed to rebuild these countries wracked by disease.
One of the best ways
to fight the epidemic of AIDS is in preventing mothers from passing on
the HIV virus to their children. President Bush recently announced a new
$500 million International Mother and Child HIV Prevention Initiative
that seeks to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to infants
and improves health care delivery in Africa and the Caribbean. Through
a combination of improving care and drug treatment and building the health-care-delivery
capacity, this new effort is expected to reach up to one million women
annually and reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV by forty percent
within five years. This initiative will complement the efforts of the
Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and represents the
next essential step in the global struggle against AIDS.
Critics on the right
argue that by helping Third World countries fight AIDS, America is aiding
and abetting irresponsible behavior and that it condones promiscuous sexual
conduct. These critics also believe that the consequences of illicit behavior
are not being correctly reprimanded. Conservatives have correctly pointed
out that the most effective way to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS is by
promoting sexual abstinence and responsible moral behavior. The president's
proposal does this — which is why conservatives should support it.
President Bush's
initiative supports education in the Third World to address the moral
and physical threat AIDS poses; in particular, it stresses the dangers
of sexual permissiveness. The initiative also is aimed at facilitating
the training of personnel and implementation of prevention, care, and
treatment programs. Many African medical graduate students will be recruited
to provide testing, treatment and care for HIV/AIDS. Adequate antiviral
treatment will be administered to the mother at the time of the delivery
of the baby. Treatment will also continue after the infant is born. Safer
breastfeeding practices will also be promoted.
Statistics have shown
that new advances in medical treatment and prevention programs are effective
in saving many children from the deadly scourge of HIV. For example, Uganda
has cut annual HIV infections by half through a comprehensive program
that includes an aggressive public-awareness campaign of the need for
sexual responsibility that includes abstinence and monogamy. The program
also offers access to free counseling and testing. In urban areas, the
HIV rate among pregnant women has been drastically reduced by two thirds
since the mid-1980s. In Cambodia, HIV among pregnant women dropped by
one-third in three years due to sweeping prevention programs. Also, in
Zambia and Thailand, universal access to antiviral drugs and supportive
counseling has led to
significant declines in new infections among infants.
This initiative seeks
to give a helping hand to the weak and defenseless. Like his faith-based
proposal, the president's AIDS initiative is part of his compassionate
conservative agenda that stresses the need for social responsibility along
with fiscal discipline. This plan clearly dispels the liberal media's
caricature of conservative policies as being "cold" and aimed
solely "at the rich."
Moreover, by helping
Third World countries fight AIDS, America will be making progress in the
war against terrorism. America can develop friendships with these struggling
nations by helping thousands of mothers and children who suffer from the
ravages of this deadly disease. Let it not be forgotten that countries
that are plagued with debt and disease are prime candidates for the infiltration
of terrorist groups such as Osama bin Laden's army of hate. With this
initiative, Third World countries will begin to see the United States
of America as a compassionate ally. We will be winning the hearts and
minds of people throughout Africa and the Caribbean.
Americans are a compassionate
and great people. If the September 11 terrorist attacks have taught us
anything, it is that the United States must exercise not just military
but moral leadership in the world. The president's AIDS initiative does
this. Conservatives would be wise to embrace it.
—
The Honorable Rick Santorum is a Republican senator from Pennsylvania.
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