Political Quotes

“I rise in strong and very vigorous opposition to this amendment offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde). Again, we see attempts to unravel the delicate compromise established by our negotiations on this bill. We have already dealt with this issue in another forum in the Committee on International Relations when the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) pushed for the prioritization of abstinence over condom use in the ABC model of prevention. Abstinence, fidelity, and the use of condoms should all be placed on equal footing; and that is what we agreed to in committee. So I hope that we similarly defeat this amendment. Even the Washington Times, as the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) points out, agrees that a balanced approach should be implemented and should be part of this bill. The Uganda model is based upon the ABC approach, which is prevention, abstinence, and condoms. In fact, the former director of the largest organization in Uganda dealing with HIV and AIDS treatment says that that is what has worked and that it is wrong for those who want only one approach to pull out one element of a bigger picture. And she said this is a very small percentage of the whole picture. What works is what worked in Uganda, and that is abstinence, be faithful, condoms; and that is the only strategy that makes sense.”