End of sex worker pledge in AIDS funds lifts stigma: experts

US groups that work to end HIV around the world no longer will be forced to take a pledge against prostitution, after the Supreme Court ruled this week it is a violation of free speech.
Global health advocates said the decision lifts the stigma surrounding with sex workers and their role in the world's three-decade-long HIV epidemic, and will allow scientists to talk more openly about effective ways to combat the virus.
"We know that stigma plays a huge role in driving the global AIDS epidemic and this was a very stigmatizing law against a population that is one of the most vulnerable in the epidemic," said Chris Collins, director of public policy at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

In 2003, programs that received US funds under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a global program devised by former president George W. Bush, were required to make an anti-prostitution pledge in order to receive funds.
Yesterday, the US high court ruled in favor of public health groups who challenged the condition. Chief Justice John Roberts said it went against First Amendment protections because it required groups "to pledge allegiance to the government's policy of eradicating prostitution."
A second restriction added by Congress remains, stating that no PEPFAR funds can "be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking."

Population Action International president Suzanne Ehlers said that the program's anti-prostitution pledge was a "harmful policy" that had damaged anti-AIDS efforts around the world.
"Our colleague organizations have documented numerous examples of the pledge's harmful effects, such as a condom shortage among sex workers in Mali, the withholding of safe sex information from young male sex workers in Cambodia, and the closure of community-based health centers in Bangladesh," she said.
"Evidence, not ideology, should drive policy governing public health programs.