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The War on Condoms is a War on Sex
The War on Condoms Is a War on Sex
by Noël Lynne Figart
If we don’t like something in America, we declare war on it. The War on Poverty, The War on Drugs, The War on Cancer, The War on AIDS. – George Carlin
The War on AIDS: I don’t recall signing any sort of cease-fire, did you? It seems that many of our elected officials, including the President, have signed such a treaty on our behalf. While that sounds bad enough, what they’ve done is worse – they’re handing our prisoners of war over to the enemy to die.
It started insidiously enough, when George Bush appointed Representative Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Dr. Coburn has ties with such conservative organizations as the religiously based Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. Both organizations are outspokenly anti-homosexual and strongly against extra-martial sex. Dr. Coburn has always maintained a pro-abstinence stance and is an opponent of government-funded family planning programs.
In 2001, Dr. Coburn read an analysis report that apparently shocked him. He found out that condoms are not 100 percent effective at preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). One has to wonder on what planet he earned his M.D., as any physician will point out that few methods of disease prevention work 100 percent of the time. Of all STDs included in the study, condom use ranked superior for the prevention of diseases such as AIDS and gonorrhea, but not so well for other STDs. Of course, many other STDs such as chlamydia, genital warts and genital herpes are often present on the skin, making skin-to-skin contact problematic.
Armed with this information, Dr. Coburn declared, “This report means that when condom use is discussed, it is no longer medically accurate or legal for the CDC to refer to sex as ‘safe’ or ‘protected.’” Then he called for the resignation of former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director Jeffrey Koplan, M.D.
Dr. Coburn succeeded in attaching an amendment to the House version of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act mandating that condom packages carry a warning that condoms offer “little or no protection” against an extremely common STD, human papillomavirus (HPV), some strains of which cause cervical cancer. Although this amendment was removed before the bill was enacted, Coburn was able to secure a requirement that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reexamine condom labels to determine whether they are medically accurate with respect to condoms’ “effectiveness or lack of effectiveness” in STD prevention.
There have been assertions that condom information is being pulled from the CDC website. A fact sheet on the CDC web site used to say studies showed that education about condom use did not lead to earlier or increased sexual activity. That statement, which contradicts the view of “abstinence only” advocates, has been omitted from a revised version of the page. Fortunately, the page still mentions that latex condoms, used correctly, are highly effective as a protection against HIV/AIDS.
So, how do you use condoms correctly?
Here’s where we run into a problem. That information is not on the website – the entire section called “Programs that Work” has been deleted from the site. You want to be truly safe and learn how to protect yourself from getting AIDS? Then listen to the wisdom of the Centers for Disease Control:
“The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sexual intercourse, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and you know is uninfected.”
Sadly, this is becoming a religious issue. The religious right doesn’t like homosexuality as we have all been made painfully aware over the course of our lives, and are trying their best to marginalize the homosexual community as much as possible.
The most glaring example of this is “abstinence only” sex education. Our federal tax dollars go to programs that encourage youth to abstain from sex until monogamous marriage. Since this same group is completely against gay marriage in any way, shape or form, homosexual youth are left harassed, ignorant of self-protection, at significant health risk, and encouraged to feel like criminals for a simple act of love.
Claims of a poor economy and the need for budget cuts have been the excuses given by the Bush Administration for cutting such programs as the Ryan White Care Act and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which is aimed at providing AIDS drugs to the poor. However, a careful study of Bush’s budget will show millions of dollars being poured into abstinence-only programs aimed at populations where the AIDS rate is already soaring.
Organizations for AIDS research and prevention are not only facing budget cuts, but harassment in the form of audits. The San Francisco-based Stop AIDS group and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others, have faced audits for their use of federal money. In addition, an audit conducted by Department of Health Inspector General Janet Rehnquist concluded that Stop AIDS materials could be construed as “obscene” and promoting sexual activity, in violation of federal guidelines. Websites are now required to post a warning when discussing AIDS-related material that people “may be offended” by the information presented.
No audits seem to be in the works for those who travel overseas, such as Tommy Thompson traveling last fall to the AIDS conference in Barcelona.
Yes, the US is moving its anti-sex campaign from its own shores and now is forcing it on other people, still in the form of health education and funding. The President recently signed a $15 million bill to fight AIDS in Africa. An amendment to the bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) required that a third of the money allocated for education must be spent on abstinence based information.
“I am confident that were it not for the leadership of groups like FRC, Focus on the Family, Prison Fellowship, and, in particular, FRC’s Government Affairs division led by Vice President Connie Mackey, the AIDS bill the Senate passed last month would have been a complete disaster. Our groups worked tirelessly over the past three months to fix a bad bill and ensure that the final legislation reflected sound pro-family principles,” says Ken Conner, President of the Family Research Council.
This War on Condoms seems to be more of a War on Sex. It demands that human beings behave in a way they simply do not and never have. It seems to say, “You in the gay community, if you cannot simply stop having sex, then we want you to die.”
Noël Figart lives in Fairlee. She can be reached at noel@pentide.com.