US funding for HIV/AIDS in Africa has risen substantially in recent years, but the good this has done is more than outweighed by the sharp decline in support for family planning. That’s the premise of an article in this week’s Washington Post, which notes that poor family planning means more children are being born HIV positive.

Is that a fair way to look at the situation? It’s certainly a provocative one. Many public health experts have advocated piggybacking HIV treatment and prevention efforts onto family planning. But instead US support for family planning has waned since 1994, and the Bush administration has pulled funds from organizations that counsel women about abortion. With such policies, it’s no surprise that the United Nations has revised its estimates of the population of Kenya in 2050 from 44 to 83 million.

The benefits of family planning may seem self evident—one being reducing the rate of HIV transmission to children and reducing the burden on parents who may themselve be HIV positive. But perhaps it’s not so obvious to those who make policy.