Condoms  

	Abstinence, Monogamy and Sex. A blistering attack on the Bush Administration's policies regarding condoms and abstinence in an editorial of The Lancet, a foremost British medical journal.(1)
	Condoms: a woman's perspective

Footnote

(1) See also Ceci Connolly. 2001. "Administration promoting abstinence; family planning efforts are being scaled back." Washington Post. July 30.

The exception within the Bush Administration has been Secretary of State Colin Powell who in answer to a youthful questioner said:  "In my own judgment, condoms are a way to prevent infection.  Therefore, I not only support their use, I encourage their use among people who are sexually active and need to protect themselves."  Peter Slevin and Ceci Connolly. 2002. "Powell urges condom use." Washington Post. February 15.

In its efforts to discourage condom use, the Administration has issued a controversial report through the National Institutes of Health. Susan Okie. 2001. "Experts fear condom report's effects; panel's criticism may deter some prophylactic use, officials say." Washington Post. July 21.

The panel that wrote the report was itself concerned that its work would be misused.  The final paragraph of the executive summary reads in part:

The Panel stressed that the absence of definitive conclusions reflected inadequacies of the evidence available and should not be interpreted as proof of the adequacy or inadequacy of the condom to reduce the risk of STDs other than HIV transmission in men and women and gonorrhea in men. . . .National Institutes of Health. Workshop summary: scientific evidence on condom effectiveness for sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention. July 20.

In a counter-report written by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation argued:

The bottom line is that abstinence fails more often condoms.  And abstinence, like a condom, is only effective when it is consistently used as a means of STD and HIV prevention. . . .The government group looked at the quality of published research studies.  They group did not look at the effectiveness of condoms.  we know that when condoms are used consistently and correctly they reduce the transmission of HIV and other STDs, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis and herpes. David Fraser. 2001. "NIH condom report draws fire." Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco). July 26. vol. 31 no. 30. page 1.

For a list of other materials used on this website, see References.