So much of the world takes the steady supply of HIV drugs for granted. But a political fight in Washington over abortion threatens that supply for millions of people from Ukraine to Brazil to Kenya. Our Washington and East Africa teams joined up for a look at the lives at stake in this Capitol Hill fight, highlighting the people who rely on the drugs. In an exclusive, journalists in Washington interviewed the two key opposing voices, the U.S. lawmaker leading the threat to limit the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the program’s Africa-born director. AP staffers in Kenya and Uganda interviewed young people who rely on the drugs to stay healthy.
AP story shows US abortion debate threatens global HIV treatment, putting lives around the world at stake
Sixteen-year-old Idah Musimbi, who contracted HIV at birth and lives with her grandparents and cousins in Nairobi's Kawangware slum, takes her PEPFAR-supplied anti-retrovirals pills Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. A U.S. foreign aid program that officials say has saved 25 million lives in Africa and elsewhere is being threatened by some Republicans who fear program funding might go to organizations that promote abortion.
AP PHOTO / BRIAN INGANGA