No compromise in latest Vatican ruling on condoms

The Vatican today published a sweeping condemnation of contraception, abortion, in-vitro fertilisation and same-sex marriage, declaring that the traditional family has never been so threatened.

The document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose head, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances.

Gay activists in Italy condemned the report as a grotesque attack against modern life, freedom and social redemption.

The 57-page document does not break any new ground but summarised traditional Vatican positions.

"Man of modern times has radicalised the tendency to take the place of God and substitute him," it states. "Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today?s culture."

It makes no mention of the debate within the Catholic church on whether condoms could be used in the fight against Aids, in particular to protect the wife of a man who has the virus. It reaffirms the 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, that stated the Vatican?s opposition to contraception.

The document also condemns IVF treatment, artificial insemination and the use of embryos. "If a man takes on the power to fabricate man, he also takes on the power to destroy him," it says.

"The human being has the right to be generated, not produced, to come to life not in virtue of an artificial process but of a human act in the full sense of the term: the union between a man and a woman."

There was controversy when Cardinal Trujillo asserted three years ago that condoms do not prevent Aids and may help spread it because they create a false sense of security. The Vatican insists sexual abstinence is the only sure way to fight Aids.

Several other cardinals have argued that the use of a condom within a marriage would be the lesser of two evils if it prevents passing on HIV infection to the partner.

The document made a broad attack on what it said were threats to the "the natural institution of marriage".

"Couples made up of homosexuals claim similar rights to those reserved to husband and wife; they even claim the right to adoption. Women who live a lesbian union claim similar rights, demanding laws which give them access to hetero fertilisation or embryo implantation.

"Moreover, it is claimed that the help of the law to form these unusual couples goes hand in hand with the help to divorce and repudiate," the document said.

"Abortion and infanticide show the absence of efficient juridical protection for the conceived. Such practices in fact constitute a violation of the fundamental right to life which is the right of every human being from the moment of conception," it said.

Franco Grillini, a deputy in the Italian Parliament and honorary president of the activist group Arcigay, condemned the Vatican document as "grotesque," and said that other European countries that give legal recognition to unmarried and gay couples have done so with great benefit to society.

"To maintain, therefore ... that this would represent an attack against the traditional family is a falsehood that has been scientifically contradicted by the facts," said Signor Grillini.

SOURCE:
June 6, 2006
By Ruth Gledhill and agencies
timesonline.co.uk

Health officials make condoms, morning-after pill 'teen friendly'

Health officials make condoms, morning-after pill 'teen friendly'

Teenage New Yorkers will get better access to contraceptives - including the controversial morning-after pill - under a new pilot program launched yesterday in the Bronx.

The "Healthy Teens Initiative," which will eventually be expanded citywide, seeks to reduce teen pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by making reproductive health services more "teen friendly," according to city Health Department officials.

The plan includes giving adolescents better access to condoms as well as emergency contraceptives, or morning-after pills, which have been shown to be 89% effective in preventing pregnancies if taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex.

Teens can get the pills from their doctors, city clinics and hospitals, even ahead of time, without permission from their parents.

"Not all teenagers choose to become sexually active, and we should encourage those who choose to wait," Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said as he launched the program at an event at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. "For teenagers who choose to have sex, access to care is essential in preventing pregnancy and STDs."

But critics were outraged by the initiative and called the program "wrong-headed."

"It's a signal to kids that you can go out and be as promiscuous as you want and not worry about it," said Mike Long, chairman of the Conservative Party of New York. "There is no value system here."

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, was even blunter.

"It's hard to say what's worse - the stupidity or the moral irresponsibility of these clueless health professionals," Donohue said.

SOURCE:
BY PAUL H.B. SHIN
New York DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Originally published on June 9, 2006

SAFE SEX IN THE CITY: CONDOMS AND AN UPDATED MESSAGE

June 6, 2006

In the past 15 years, New York City public schools have distributed thousands of condoms to high school students, and with them lessons about the importance of safe sex.

Still, a city health department study three years ago found teens weren't necessarily listening. One in four students who said they were sexually active reported they hadn't used a condom the last time they had sex. And nearly 20 percent of the sexually active teens said they had had at least four partners.

Results like those are one of the reasons the city's Department of Education has ramped up its AIDS curriculum in public schools in the past year. Besides providing updated information on treatment, it provides updated lessons on how to prevent it and the real-life dangers AIDS poses to everyone.

"The changing face of AIDS is becoming younger and younger," said Kacie Winsor of the New York AIDS Coalition, who sat on the panel that drafted a revised schools curriculum released last year.

The Department of Education launched its comprehensive push to rewrite the curriculum after Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told a state Assembly hearing that he agreed the AIDS curriculum implemented in 1987 was medically and socially dated.

One school official said that before the curriculum was updated, students had been taught things that were just plain wrong. For example, they were told that having AIDS was tantamount to a "death sentence." Under the updated curriculum, students learn how those with HIV and AIDS can live for many years with the disease and that there are many treatments. At the same time, they are told there still is no cure.

"It's not everything we wanted, but it's definitely a step in the right direction and an improvement from the old curriculum," said Winsor.

Under state guidelines, public schools must provide age-appropriate lessons, though districts have freedom to design the specific curriculum.

In the city, as in many districts around the state, that means that younger students, in kindergarten through third grade, are exposed to general instruction on how to prevent other diseases, with a focus on handwashing, covering mouths when they cough or sneeze, and cleaning and bandaging cuts.

As they get older, the lessons become more direct about transmission of the virus, which is not spread by casual contact, along with its prevention.

"We also have to recognize that students are exposed to lots of information on the Internet, on cable television and ... the message of personal responsibility and the value of abstaining from alcohol or sexual activity and other drugs," said Betty Rothbart, director of health education and family living at the Department of Education. "These are messages that they may not be hearing very much in other areas of their lives."

At Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School, assistant principal John Roberts, who is responsible for health and physical education, said he believes his 3,700 students are exposed to a comprehensive curriculum that covers AIDS and a number of health topics - more than the minimum six lessons in high school the department stipulates.

The school also combines lectures with hands-on lessons. Roberts said. To mark World AIDS Day, for example, students take part in a week of activities - including a commemorative quilt and daylong sessions with guest speakers.

While abstinence is stressed as part of the high school curriculum, most high schools in the city also make condoms available to those who request them, unless a student's parent objects.

While it is difficult to gauge how effective the condom distribution has been, Roberts said a recent survey found 100 to 150 had been requested over one month at Murrow alone.

The department's condom availability policy was created by a chancellor regulation in 1991. Training is offered to schools taking part in the program. The department orders the condoms and provides them to schools upon request.

Source:
BY BRYAN VIRASAMI
Newsday.com Staff Writer

Teens' use of condoms increases

Teens' use of condoms increases
Survey finds use grew since ruling

More Massachusetts teenagers who are sexually active are using condoms, according to a state survey released yesterday, 11 years after a landmark court ruling said schools could make them available to students.

The state survey, given to 3,500 teenagers in 51 high schools last year, shows that condom use has increased steadily since the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that schools could hand out condoms without parental consent.

``We're really happy to see that," said Sophie Godley, deputy director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. ``It gives me tremendous faith that young people in this state are hearing this message and taking care of themselves. They're taking the risks and dangers of sexual activity very seriously, and they should."

Sexual activity among teenagers has increased as the Bay State battles over how to teach students about sex. About 45 percent of teenagers said they had had sexual intercourse at least once, up from 41 percent in 2003, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a poll of student health and safety given every two years here and nationwide.

Sixty-five percent of sexually active students said they used condoms, similar to the national average and up from 57 percent in 2003.

Two months ago, Governor Mitt Romney, who is weighing a bid for the presidency, announced that the state would spend nearly $1 million in federal funds for abstinence education programs in school systems with high teenage pregnancy rates, including Boston, Lawrence, Lynn, and Lowell.

Romney has insisted that his plan is not ``abstinence only," but critics fear it would undermine the progress Massachusetts has made through sex education and condom availability.

In 2004, teenage pregnancy reached a low of 22 births per 1,000, a rate that is significantly below the national average, according to the state Department of Public Health. HIV diagnoses among teenagers also remain rare here; the state recorded 11 cases in 2004.

``He's playing politics with kids' lives," said Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Massachusetts. ``If kids are going to be sexually active, they should be using condoms."

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said abstinence should be the first choice for students, ``but if they're going to engage in risky behavior, they should definitely take precautions."

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who is running for governor, declined to comment on the survey. But in April she declined to fully back Romney's program and said she favored more comprehensive sex-education instruction.

It is unclear how readily available condoms are in Massachusetts schools, because the state doesn't track that. Schools that provide condoms generally do so through the school nurse's office, health centers, or vending machines. In 1991, Falmouth schools became some of the first in Massachusetts to hand out condoms, prompting a challenge from a group of parents who filed a lawsuit saying it infringed on their rights and religious freedoms. That suit triggered the 1995 SJC case that upheld the policy.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School has a health center where students can request condoms, said principal Sybil Knight.

Holyoke, in Western Massachusetts, offers condoms in its high schools, with parents' permission, and also teaches abstinence, said Superintendent Eduardo Carballo.

``We believe that it is important for families to know what's going on, and it's the family's choice," Carballo said.

In Boston, school officials do not make condoms available, but students can get them at 13 school-based health centers, as long as they have permission from their parents and a referral from a primary care physician.

Sexual activity among teenagers had been declining for several years, from 47 percent in 1995 to 41 percent in 2003, until this year's increase.

Brian Camenker -- president of MassResistance, a nonprofit group based in Waltham that advocates for parents' rights -- questioned the survey's findings because they are self-reported by teenagers. He called for schools to avoid teaching about sex or giving out condoms.

``It's a rotten idea," said Camenker. ``It creates more sexual activity, and it sends the message to kids that you're not really responsible."

The survey generally revealed positive trends in young people's personal health in the state. The survey found that only half of teenagers had tried cigarette smoking last year, down from 72 percent a decade ago. Binge drinking declined to 27 percent of students last year from a third in 1995.

But nearly 80 percent of students had taken a drink, similar to the response in 1995.

Only 13 percent of students seriously considered suicide, down from 26 percent in 1995. About 15 percent said they had carried a weapon, up slightly from 2003.

Source By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | June 9, 2006
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.