July 13, 2004

SUCH APT NAMES:

AIDS Crisis Prompts Fight Over Abstinence (VIJAY JOSHI, 7/12/04, Associated Press)

President Bush's policy of fighting AIDS by promoting abstinence ran into strong opposition Monday from scientists, activists and policy-makers who touted condoms as a trusted weapon in the fight against AIDS.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was the only big-name speaker at the International AIDS Conference to support Washington's ABC policy: Abstinence, Being faithful and Condoms, in that order.

Museveni said loving relationships based on trust are crucial, and "the principle of condoms is not the ultimate solution."

"In some cultures sexual intercourse is so elaborate that condoms are a hindrance," he told a plenary session. "Let the condom be used by people who cannot abstain, cannot be faithful, or are estranged."

However, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and other delegates urged the world's rich countries to spend more on condoms and other HIV-fighting programs for the developing world.

"In an age where 5 million people are newly infected each year and women and girls too often do not have the choice to abstain, an abstinence-until-marriage program is not only irresponsible, it's really inhumane," said Lee, a California Democrat.


That sets the terms of the debate nicely: for the Right, human sex should be accompanied by love; for the Left, such a notion is inhumane.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2004 11:23 AM
Comments

If women and girls too often do not have the choice to abstain, how often are they going to be able to ensure their "partner" uses a condom?

Or is Rep. Lee merely hoping to influence men that rape their wives and girlfriends to have the foresight to use a condom?

Posted by: Twn at July 13, 2004 12:15 PM

Rep. Lee is confused, young women may choose to abort their developing children since they had no choice regarding sexual activity and choice trumps every other consideration and rep. Lee is pro-choice and President Bush wants to take away women's ability to choose so AIDS or STD's have nothing to do with behavior and the ability to choose since we are all equal and that's why homosexual marriage is so important and....

Posted by: Tom C, Stamford,Ct. at July 13, 2004 12:40 PM

Those societies where women and girls have no choice are all conservative and highly religious.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at July 13, 2004 1:40 PM

Harry,
I call "bull-s**t." When I hear about societies in which women and girls have no choice regarding sex, I think of places that allow trafficing in sex slavery, and one of the first places of that nature that comes to mind is Thailand. You're telling me that Bankok is a conservative and highly religious place?

Posted by: Roy Jacobsen at July 13, 2004 2:06 PM

It's possible to conserve the wrong things and follow false gods.

Posted by: oj at July 13, 2004 2:43 PM

Those societies where women and girls have no choice are governed by regimes that 'liberals' defend as the legitimate governments of sovereign states.

Posted by: djs at July 13, 2004 3:05 PM

Don't forget the Netherlands and Cuba... neither religious nor conservative.

Posted by: Timothy at July 13, 2004 4:07 PM

bwahahah, i just love how eagar harry is to instantly tie a bad thing in with religion or conservatism.

made a note about this article here yesterday. Long and short, Lee is utterly retarded

Posted by: poormedicalstudent at July 13, 2004 6:14 PM

Heck, at least the article down in the lower paragraphs mentions that Uganda is the one African nation to have some success fighting AIDS.

Posted by: John Thacker at July 13, 2004 7:38 PM

I'd say Thailand is among the most conservative and religious societies on the planet. It's even a constitutional monarchy. Orrin should love it.

Lee may be six kinds of a fool, but the idea that sex is coerced in large parts of the world is correct.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at July 13, 2004 8:45 PM

Religion per se won't do you any good, most of them are wrong.

Posted by: oj at July 13, 2004 9:07 PM

All but one--if that many--are wrong.

The devil is in knowing which, if any, are right.

Posted by: Jeff Guinn at July 14, 2004 8:11 AM

Using Darwinian standards Judeo-Christianity is the fittest.

Posted by: oj at July 14, 2004 8:22 AM

OJ:

Using English standards, "fitness" didn't appear in my comment.

Posted by: Jeff Guinn at July 15, 2004 7:00 AM

Orrin does not understand darwinism. Darwinism does not declare final winners.

Ever hear of dinosaurs?

Posted by: Harry Eagar at July 15, 2004 7:33 PM
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