In a mounting crisis for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) has voiced concerns over the program’s uncertain fate. PEPFAR, a two-decade-old African HIV prevention initiative celebrated for saving over 25 million lives, is now teetering on the brink due to mounting opposition from conservative groups. With a looming government shutdown, Congress seems unlikely to reauthorize this critical program, originally passed in 2003 under the administration of former President George W. Bush.
Lee expressed her apprehension during a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference, emphasizing the program’s bipartisan history, saying, “As we approach the benchmark of an AIDS-free generation by 2023, it is unfortunately more in peril now than ever before.”
Historically, PEPFAR has enjoyed bipartisan support, but recently, conservative organizations such as the Heritage Foundation and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have threatened Republican lawmakers with the withdrawal of their support if they vote for PEPFAR’s routine reauthorization. Their unsubstantiated claim is that PEPFAR funds organizations promoting and providing abortions, despite U.S. law prohibiting foreign aid money for such purposes.
The far-right Family Research Council has gone as far as labeling PEPFAR as “a massive slush fund for abortion and LGBT advocacy.” They launched a campaign urging supporters to oppose PEPFAR’s reauthorization, framing it as a means for the Biden administration to promote radical social policies overseas.
While Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new PEPFAR strategy aimed at reducing inequalities among marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ individuals, Lee maintained that PEPFAR has nothing to do with abortions.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Dr. John Knengasong both decried the manufactured controversy surrounding PEPFAR’s reauthorization, highlighting its significance in strengthening U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy.
Nicholas Kristof, in a recent op-ed, underscored PEPFAR’s role in shaping a pro-American sentiment in Africa. Failure to reauthorize the program may jeopardize American influence in the region, potentially handing a strategic advantage to China.
Lee concluded by emphasizing that if PEPFAR is not reauthorized, the U.S. would be “missing in action.” While conservative groups advocate for applying a Reagan-era policy banning U.S. foreign aid from funding abortion-related organizations, the future of PEPFAR remains uncertain as Rep. Chris Smith’s amendment seeks to impose the “Mexico City policy” on the program, a move not expected to pass in its current form.