Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-2 decision in the case of USAID vs. AOSI that a 2003 law requiring organizations to oppose prostitution by official policy as a condition of funding for HIV programs violates the First Amendment.

“The global health community has won a victory for the independence of international nonprofits and for women who are unfairly marginalized and have had their rightful access to needed health care and other services unfairly limited,” said Rebecca Kohler, IntraHealth International’s senior vice president of corporate strategy and development.

The policy requirement impeded the efforts of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to provide a comprehensive response to HIV and AIDS. It limited their ability to reach out to sex workers—a population at great risk of contracting and spreading the virus—without fear that providing these women, men, and even children with nonjudgmental support and health services could lead to a loss of federal funding, even when the specific program was not government-funded. The requirement also eroded NGOs’ abilities to participate freely and fully in the public discourse on prostitution.

“Successful partnerships and health care interactions are built on trust, mutual respect, and openness,” said Pape Gaye, IntraHealth’s president and CEO.  “If my organization explicitly opposes prostitution, how can a sex worker or her advocate feel safe coming to us for help? Exclusion of the sex worker population—a group that has been underserved and marginalized and discriminated against for hundreds of years—is immoral and threatens the effectiveness of every health system. I am thrilled that our justice system has taken this powerful step. We look forward to continuing the fight for an AIDS-free generation in partnership with the US Agency for International Development without this unnecessary and damaging restriction.”

IntraHealth has worked alongside the international NGO community since efforts began on this case to ensure that social stigma and government relations are never a barrier to the rights of all citizens to quality health services. We congratulate our colleagues at Interaction, the Alliance for Open Society International, the Global Health Council, and many others for championing this great victory on behalf of the global health and development community.