For four years now, the US global AIDS program has been required to spend a minimum of one-third of all funding for the prevention of HIV on abstinence-until-marriage programs that have been overwhelmingly rejected by the international public health community as ineffective. This requirement means that rather than funding comprehensive prevention programs that enable all people to make safe choices that reflect the reality of their lives, the US is funding ideologically driven programs that leave people at risk of HIV. These programs fail to address the critical factors—such as early marriage, violence against women and children, and lack of access to information, skills and tools to practice safer sex—that drive extremely high rates of infection among married women and adolescent girls throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The PATHWAY Act would both remove the one-third abstinence-until-marriage spending requirement (known as the "abstinence earmark") and require the US government to develop a comprehensive and integrated HIV prevention strategy that addresses the vulnerabilities of women and girls. Your Representative needs to hear from you about the PATHWAY Act today!