Critics Say Program Offering Money for Contraception to HIV-Positive Kenyan Women Is Illegal

IRIN/Plus News reports that "[t]he Kenyan government and rights groups have expressed outrage at a project in western Kenya that is paying HIV-positive women to undergo long-term contraception." James Kamau of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement said "the project was 'wrong, immoral and unethical.' He noted that it contradicted provisions against discrimination in the country's HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 2006. Ministry of Health officials say Project Prevention did not seek the government's authority before beginning its operations, making its activities illegal," according to the article.

Project Prevention Kenya coordinator Willice Okoth "argued that the project's aim was to fill family planning gaps, prevent HIV-related infant deaths and lower the number of orphans in the country" (5/12).

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