Abstinence Education News
House Passes Abstinence, Conscience Amendments to AIDS Bill
Washington, DC -- Pro-family groups are hailing the passage on Thursday of two key amendments to the global AIDS bill that would prioritize abstinence and protect faith-based groups who participate in HIV prevention efforts in Africa.
The House of Representatives voted 220-197 to approve an amendment, sponsored by pro-life Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), which mandated that at least one-third of the money earmarked for HIV/AIDS prevention programs emphasize abstinence until marriage. House members also approved by voice vote New Jersey Republican Congressman Chris Smith's amendment to provide conscience protection for faith-based groups that take prevention funding.
"These amendments go a long way to making a bad bill more palatable, and we thank Congressmen Pitts and Smith for their efforts," said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family.
The global AIDS bill itself, H.R. 1298, passed 375-41 after the amendments were added.
"The fight to prioritize abstinence over condoms is a difficult one, and gains are made incrementally -- as today's vote demonstrates," Minnery continued.
Activism from concerned citizens appeared to influence the outcome of the vote.
Ken Connor, president of the Family Research Council, noted that the "safe sex" approach to preventing AIDS is the wrong way to go.
"Simply tossing out condoms and creating the illusion of safe sex does not work," Connor said. "Teaching abstinence and funding fiscally accountable organizations does work."
Minnery echoed Connor's comments, citing the success story in the African nation of Uganda.
"Uganda has proven to the world that abstinence and marital fidelity reduce the prevalence of HIV infections. We urge the Senate to continue the work begun in the House to reflect these priorities in the global AIDS bill.
Source: Focus on the Family/Pro-Life Infonet
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Colin Powell teaches sexual abstinence
Secretary of State Colin Powell says he and his wife, Alma, have been advocating sexual abstinence to young girls in Washington.
"Abstinence is a good thing to teach young people before they're ready for the responsibilities of sexual activity," Powell said in an interview with the BBC. "Abstinence works. We know it works ... and it is a perfectly sensible strategy to take to young people."
Powell was defending plans to earmark for abstinence education fully one-third of the administration's promised $15 billion in aid to fight AIDS.
Powell explained how he and his wife frequently came face to face with girls at high risk for contracting HIV. Alma Powell runs an organization in Washington called Best Friends, reports London's Independent newspaper, aimed at showing girls how to improve the quality of their lives.
Ironically, Powell came under harsh criticism early last year when, appearing on MTV, he advised the nation's children this way:
"It's important that the whole international community come together, speak candidly about it, forget the taboos, forget the conservative ideas with respect to what you shouldn't tell young people about. It's the lives of young people who are put at risk by unsafe sex and, therefore, protect yourself. ... In my own judgment, condoms are a way to prevent infection – and therefore, I support their use ... among people who are sexually active and need to protect themselves."
Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, in a major speech before 3,500 people at the National Religious Broadcasters annual convention, said this of Powell's MTV comments:
Feb. 14, two nights ago, you may have heard that Secretary of State Colin Powell went on MTV, broadcast internationally, and recommended that kids use condoms. And I'll quote for you. Listen carefully to the words he used: "Forget about taboos." Guess whose taboos are we going to forget about? "Forget about conservative ideas." Guess whose conservative ideas? "With respect to what you should tell young people about, it's lives of young people that are being put at risk by unsafe sex, and therefore, protect yourself."
What he didn't tell them is that the Centers for Disease Control, an arm of the federal government, last year issued a report that the press wouldn't report on that said, "Condoms do not protect against syphilis, gonorrhea, human papilloma virus, herpes, and most of the other sexually-transmitted diseases." And yet, here is the secretary of state on MTV, not the secretary of health and human services, the secretary of state making a statement like that.
In this weekend's BBC interview, Powell said that to dissuade girls from sexual activity and its negative consequences, he tells them: "You are not ready for this, so let's take your energy and any hopes and dreams you have and convert that into other healthy activities ... dance, group activities, other things."
Source: World Net Daily
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Condom Label Changes Spark Debate
By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer
CHICAGO - That tiny bit of print on a condom packet is at the center of a raging debate now that President George W. Bush has asked the Food and Drug Administration to modify the current warning to include information about human papillomavirus, commonly called HPV or genital warts.
On one side are scientists who believe that condoms should be promoted as a crucial line of defense against several STDs and cervical cancer. On the other are groups that advocate waiting for sex until marriage, and who see the dangers of HPV as an argument for their cause.
Justin Kleinman hadn't noticed the condom packet wording until he squinted to read it recently.
"This is completely pointless," the 24-year-old Chicagoan said of the warning telling him that, while condoms can help prevent the spread of some sexually transmitted diseases, there are no guarantees.
"The lack of information getting to the American public regarding this disease is beyond comprehension," said Linda Klepacki, manager of the abstinence policy department at Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based organization.
She and others point to research showing that condoms don't necessarily prevent the spread of HPV, in part because it may be found on parts of the body the latex devices don't cover. Abstinence is the best way to prevent the disease, she argues.
Adding that information to a condom label would be "truth in advertising," said Libby Gray. She's the director of Project Reality, an Illinois-based group that teaches public school students about abstinence — and notes that most students she speaks with have no idea what HPV is.
But scientists who study HPV worry that abstinence groups are dismissing important information to promote their own values.
"I want to be polite. But it appalls me when I see scientific and medical studies being manipulated for a different agenda," said Tom Broker. He's a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and president of the International Papillomavirus Society, a coalition of experts who study HPV.
The focus, Broker said, should be on the fact that condoms have been shown to reduce the risk of cervical cancer, which is caused by HPV and which can be detected and treated if women get regular PAP smears. (The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recent report to Congress that included the same conclusion.)
Broker also said research has shown that HPV transmission is less likely when a person does not have other STDs, such as HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia, which condoms have been shown to combat.
Both he and Dr. Ward Cates, former head of the CDC's STD/HIV prevention group, agreed that teaching abstinence is a key to preventing the spread of disease.
But when someone becomes sexually active, they also believe that "condoms are the best imperfect way we have," said Cates, now president of the family Health Institute of Family Health International, a nonprofit global health organization based in North Carolina.
Officials at the federal FDA concede that boiling down a "very extensive and complicated" body of scientific literature on HPV into a few words on a condom label is no easy task.
"It must be medically accurate and at the same time, be clear and understandable for, like, my 17-year-old when he goes out on Saturday night," said Dr. Dan Schultz, director of the FDA's Office of Device Evaluation. He expects to issue recommendations on an HPV warning by the end of the year.
Some young people, meanwhile, are frustrated that so much attention is being paid to wording on a condom label.
"Honestly, getting people to use a protection at all is the biggest step," said Jessica Keefe, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Michigan. "I know so many smart, well-educated college students who don't use them — even after years of sex ed and university health programs."
Marina Elbert, a 20-year-old junior at Rutgers University, said she's among those who'd be unlikely to read or heed a condom package label.
"I'm a smoker, and I read the warning labels on my cigarettes, but I still smoke," she said. "That's the same mentality that teens might have toward condom labels."
She'd rather get information from her doctor or books, magazines and Web sites. To that end, the makers of such condom brands as Trojan and Durex have posted information on their Web sites about STDs..
Kleinman, the 24-year-old Chicagoan, agrees that's a better tactic than labeling: "If the money can teach one kid in school the dangers of sex — even with a condom — then it will have been put to a lot more good than any fine-print label on a crumpled wrapper on the bed stand."
Source: Yahoo News
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Abstinence Education Reduces Out-of-Wedlock Births
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) Making a sexual abstinence pledge leads to a reduction in out-of-wedlock births, according to a report released last week by the Heritage Foundation. Women who promise to save sex until marriage "are about 40 percent less likely to have a child out of wedlock when compared to similar young women who do not make such a pledge," said Heritage Foundation researcher Robert Rector. The report suggests that the results are valid even when other aspects of the women's lives are considered, which leads the Foundation to believe that abstinence-education programs can "reduce teen pregnancy and out-of-wedlock child bearing." The Heritage Foundation based its report on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, also known as "Add Health," which has been tracking the behavior of 12,000 teens since 1994, surveying them about various aspects of their lives, including whether or not they took "a public or written pledge to remain a virgin until marriage." Most of the teens surveyed have now reached ages 19 to 25. According to the Heritage Foundation report, 29 percent of women who did not make a pledge to save sex for marriage had a child out of wedlock, compared to 14 percent of those who did make such a pledge.
Source: LifeNews, May 31, 2004
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