Secretary Clinton Ditches Mark Dybul, The Abstinence-Only AIDS Coordinator!

RH Reality Check has learned that Secretary Hillary Clinton has asked Global
AIDS Coordinator Mark Dybul, who supported using PEPFAR money for failed
abstinence-only programs, to leave.

Jodi Jacobson reports on RH Reality Check
<http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/01/22/dybul-out-thank-you-hillary> :

Sworn in as Secretary of State just yesterday, Hillary Clinton wasted no
time cleaning house at the vast department she runs. Today, we have heard,
Mark Dybul was asked to submit his resignation as US Global AIDS
Coordinator, head of the office in charge of the President's Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief.

This is a huge first step to ensuring the health and rights of all people at
risk of HIV and AIDS: Dybul oversaw the last several years of
abstinence-only programs funded by PEPFAR, hob-knobbed a bit too closely
with the far right, and never saw a law or policy restriction he could not
make even more restrictive. Curious for a self-identified Democrat? Not so
curious, I guess, if your career is dependent on pleasing the far right, and
if your desire to be Global AIDS Coordinator outweighs your desire to stand
up for what is right. Under the Bush Administration, brave professionals
such as Susan Wood, then-Assistant FDA Commissioner and Director of the
Office of Women's Health, resigned rather than carry out policies that
compromised science, evidence, ethics and human lives. Dybul instead did
everything he could to work with the far right to tighten policies, deny
women access to reproductive and sexual health care, and put in place
guidance that further restricted women's choices. I have no doubt that as a
result people in countries like Uganda were needlessly infected with HIV
under his regime and because of the policies he supported through his
unwillingness to stand up and speak out.

But we no longer have to abide such policies. Hillary Clinton has taken
swift action to show she will stand up for the health and rights of people
everywhere, for evidence-based policies to promote women's health. She and
our new President deserve our deep appreciation.

Thank you, Hillary!