Edwards Plans To Dismantle Bush AIDS Programs

John Edwards has unveiled a far-reaching $50B HIV plan that would dismantle many of the Bush administration initiatives. Edwards' plan would end the disastrous abstinence-only programs and would provide for age-appropriate sex education in public schools. The plan would also make HIV-positive people eligible for Medicaid before they reached the late states of the disease and would encourage needle-exchange programs for addicts.

Edwards: "This is a fight for people's lives. HIV is a preventable disease - but an estimated 40,000 new HIV cases were reported in the U.S. last year, and 4.3 million were reported around the world. What's more, HIV/AIDS is a treatable disease - yet 17,000 Americans and 3 million people globally died from it in 2005. We have a moral imperative to do much more and do it much better. I do believe it (HIV/AIDS) is a crisis in America; obviously it's a crisis in the world."