Bush Calls for Compassion, and Cure, for AIDS Victims

President Bush Thursday called on Americans to demonstrate compassion for people with AIDS and urged the House to approve legislation that would protect them from discrimination.

“For those who are living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS, our response is clear,” he said in his first major speech on AIDS. “They deserve our compassion. They deserve our care. And they deserve more than a chance--they deserve a cure.”

In a speech that was unusually personal for Bush, he said that he and his wife, Barbara, “have had friends who have died of AIDS. Our love for them when they were sick and when they died was just as great and just as intense as for anyone lost to heart disease or cancer or accidents.”

And he likened the heartbreak of babies infected with AIDS to the leukemia death of his own daughter, Robin, in 1953, two months before her fourth birthday.

“We asked the doctor the same question every HIV family must ask: Why? Why this was happening to our beautiful little girl?” he said at a meeting of the National Business Leadership Conference on AIDS.

Bush’s comments were praised by Dr. June Osborn, chairman of the National Commission on AIDS, who said: “We’ve been desperately needing this leadership from the top. The most critical area has been the need to get Americans to be more compassionate and understanding.”

However, Jean McGuire, executive director of the AIDS Action Council, called Bush’s speech “long on compassion but short on commitment.”

McGuire complained that Bush had failed to address a U.S. immigration policy that bars people with AIDS from entering the country, and said: “We have become an embarrassment to the global community.”

The immigration restriction threatens to cripple a major global conference on AIDS scheduled for June in San Francisco. Although AIDS-afflicted visitors can receive waivers to enter, the documents become part of an individual’s record and are considered unacceptable by many scientific and AIDS organizations.

As a result, many participants are expected to boycott the annual International Conference of AIDS, considered the most important AIDS meeting of the year.

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters that immigration rules are enacted by Congress, “so we don’t have a lot of political recourse except to try to make them work.”

He added: “We do share the concerns of the AIDS organizations that they be effectively applied and implemented.”

Bush, appearing before an audience of business and health executives and officers of AIDS organizations, heavily stressed the compassion theme.

“Once disease strikes, we don’t blame those who are suffering,” he said. “We don’t spurn the accident victim who didn’t wear a seat belt. We don’t reject the cancer patient who didn’t quit smoking. We try to love them and care for them and comfort them. We do not fire them, or evict them or cancel their insurance.”

He strongly endorsed House passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination in the private sector against the disabled, including those with HIV infection or fully developed AIDS. The Senate has already approved the measure.

“We’re in a fight against a disease--not a fight against people,” Bush said. “And we will not--and we must not in America--tolerate discrimination.”

He was interrupted several times by two hecklers. One unidentified man shouted: “Why did it take you 14 months to say this?”

Urvashi Vaid, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, held a sign that read: “Talk is cheap. AIDS funding is not,” and stood up to say: “Mr. President, you don’t understand. We need funding.”

At the disruption, Bush departed from his prepared remarks and said, to applause: “I can understand the concern that these people feel, and I hope that, if we do nothing else by coming here, I can help them understand that, not only do you care, but we care, too.”

Bush described his Administration’s stance on AIDS as “a wartime footing,” adding: “We’re going to continue to fight like hell. But we’re also going to fight for hope. America has a unique capacity for beating the odds--and astounding the world.”

He said that his Administration has asked Congress for almost $3.5 billion for AIDS, including Medicaid funding. The White House has requested $1.6 billion for research, prevention and non-Medicaid care--an amount that has been criticized as inadequate by a range of AIDS organizations.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, said he is glad Bush is “taking the first step--kinder and gentler rhetoric.” But, Waxman added: “It’s all lip service if he doesn’t follow up his promises with programs.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and the author of a $600-million emergency disaster relief AIDS bill, called Bush’s speech “an encouraging start, far beyond the commitment the Reagan Administration was willing to make.” He urged Bush to support his measure.