The US Anti-Prostitution Pledge: First Amendment Challenges and Public Health Priorities

摘要

In January 2003, United States President George W. Bush announced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the appropriation of $15 billion dollars for programs to combat the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, in his State of the Union address. Congress responded with the legislative authorization for the plan, the United States Leadership Against Global HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, and assigned seven primary implementing agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [1]. Although the Act will expire in fiscal year 2008, the President has called on Congress once again to extend the plan for another five years and double the funding to $30 billion [2]. Within the detailed plan, Congress expressed concern about the social, cultural, and behavioral causes of HIV, specifically naming prostitution and sex trafficking as among the behavioral forces behind the spread of the virus. This legislation advanced a new policy goal for the US: the global eradication of prostitution [1].