Research Proposal: ABC in Africa

The lab is Uganda. The disease is AIDS. A successful treatment is ABC: Abstain, Be faithful, or at last resort, use a Condom.

Ridiculed by the world for adopting a social engineering experiment that suggested that people might actually choose to abstain from sex, stay faithful to their partner and for high-risk groups, use a condom, Uganda saw results that left the healthcare world with mouths agape. According to the BBC, the number of HIV cases in Uganda dropped by 70% in the 1990’s.

Despite overwhelming evidence, there remain critics who refuse to let the facts persuade their ideology. As one convinced that teaching sexual abstinence until marriage in our public schools can produce teens who are happier, healthier and more academically successful, I will spend the next few weeks researching the facts as both sides see them and posting what I find as forthrightly as possible.

Opinions against the ABC plan are plentiful. Groups such as the Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), and Planned Parenthood have lined up with the same arguments that they have used to fight abstinence education in the United States for the past 15 years. These groups claim that condom education and availability are paramount to reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS. They also claim that their groups should receive the vast amounts of money to do this education internationally.

Unfortunately, opinions in support of the ABC plan in Uganda are sparse. This may be due to the fact that Social Conservatives, in general, oppose reliance on condom education. There are several reasons for this: condoms have a high failure rate among some populations; condoms provide no protection for several common sexually transmitted infections (STIs); and teen girls’ bodies are actually more susceptible to STI’s than women’s bodies.

In addition, there is evidence that more access to condoms can be counterproductive to decreasing the spread of STIs. A 2004 study out of Harvard University found that increased condom availability does not reduce AIDS in African countries. On the contrary, the “safe sex” message reportedly gave Africans a false sense of security and led to a rise in HIV cases in those areas. (“New Research Shows Dangers of Condoms in HIV Prevention.” Culture & Cosmos Volume 1, Number 23, January 13, 2004). In the face of this evidence, and because one of the elements in the ABC plan is Condoms, many abstinence advocates may be ambivalent about whether to endorse the overall program.

Here are some of the web sites I anticipate using in my research:

Title: Index of Economic Freedom, Heritage Foundation
Web address: http://www.heritage.org/index/country.cfm?id=Uganda
Brief Description: This web site assesses the economic freedom of Uganda in several categories including business, trade, fiscal, property rights, and freedom from corruption. This will be useful in providing background information on the country and in making comparisons to the United States.

Title: Advocates for Youth, The ABCs and HIV Prevention
Web Address: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/youth/advocacy/yan/globalhiv/hivprevention.htm
Brief Description: This web site will be used to present arguments that refute claims of success in Uganda under the ABC approach for reducing HIV.

Title: President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Implementation Evaluation from Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
Web address: http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3783/24770.aspx
Brief Description: At the request of the U.S. Congress, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is evaluating the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Title: Evidence That Demands Action by Medical Institute for Sexual Health
Web address:
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:4JzlqIoc0q8J:www.medinstitute.org/includes/downloads/MI_ABC_Monograph.pdf+%22Evidence+that+Demands+Action%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Brief Description: This web site offers supporting medical evidence that abstinence education yields positive results for young people when taught correctly. The site also contains research on many other sexual health issues.

Title: Beyond Slogans: Lessons From Uganda’s Experience with ABC and HIV/AIDS from Guttmacher Institute
Web site: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/5/gr060501.html
Brief Description: This web site will be used to cite opinions that oppose the teaching of abstinence education.

Title: AIDS Uganda
Web site: http://www.aidsuganda.org/
Once a staunch supporter of the abstinence component of the ABC plan, this web site is beginning to fall more into line with traditional arguments which oppose emphasis on abstaining from sex.

Title: Christianity Today
Web site: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/april/12.30.html
Brief Description: Christians have begun to see their own role in advocating what they consider the safest policy to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, that of abstinence and fidelity. This web site is a mainstream Christian publication.

Key words: ABC, Uganda, abstinence, Africa, condom effectiveness, MISH (Medical Institute of Sexual Health), Heritage Foundation, Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, social conservatives.