I’ve written at length about sex education and contraception on this blog, mostly because it’s a subject I’ve done extensive research on. Which is why I get extraordinarily annoyed with the public discussion which events like the Pope’s recent comments bring about. The latest assertions that make me angry:
1. Condoms don’t prevent all STDs. No one on the contraceptive side argues this. No one. Because condoms aren’t a fail-proof method to prevent STDs, they’re just better than not using condoms. STDs are also prevented through responsible sexual behavior, which includes contraception, honesty within your sexual relationship, being tested regularly for STDs and limiting the number of partners you have. Any plan that doesn’t include education about contraceptives as part of a larger range of responsible sexual behavior is a plan that will fail.
2. If Condoms really work, why is herpes on the rise with American teens? The assertion here being two-fold: condoms lead to more sexual activity (provably false, earlier activity but more responsible activity has been shown across cultures, but not MORE activity). The second assertion is the first assertion again, that condoms are ineffective. Herpes is a particularly bad STD to judge the effectiveness of condoms because 1. condoms don’t limit skin to skin exposure of the herpes virus, and 2. herpes is often spread through oral sex, where condom usage is less popular.
Furthermore, any discussion of trends in America is divided broadly by region and culture – any assertion based on a national trend belies the complicated nature of life in America.
If you wonder why I keep bringing all of this up, it seems timely to me not just because of the Pope’s remarks, which were expectedly clueless, but also because HIV infection rates in Washington, DC (locally) are on the rise, a depressing fact. The solution lies in a comprehensive approach, as always. Like I said above, responsible sexual behavior entails prevention, testing and treatment. It requires a changing of cultural attitudes as well as personal behavior. It’s not a simple problem, and the solution is not as simple as strapping on a condom. People who over-simplify the pro-condom position (an awful term, I apologize) irritate me because they ignore that comprehensive education entails a lot more than dropping loads of condoms in the middle of an HIV heavy population. There is, in fact, no program that entails just dropping loads of condoms in the middle of any population because it wouldn’t work.
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