A global responsibility
Today I spoke at the Pro-Choice and Proud of It conference, organised by the National Union of Students Women’s Campaign. It was really heartening to know that so many people are still prepared to stand up and defend a woman’s right to choose.
However, the speech by Sarah Mackie from Interact Worldwide really shocked me. Did you know that, despite all the efforts going into increasing funding to fight HIV/AIDS across Africa, each African man has access to just three condoms per year? I’m proud that, in the HIV/AIDS strategy for the developing world announced by Tony Blair and Hilary Benn last July, the UK pledged £150 million pounds over the next three years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. But let’s go further and use some of that political capital we got from supporting George W over Iraq to persuade him that his policy of funding only abstinence education rather than safer sex information in developing countries is disastrous…
