Abstinence rears its ugly head
Previously posted on September 1 at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/evandodds/Blog/cns!1phaOgcvNsBxzvBN9Zpx1vbQ!178.entry
Ok, that’s a silly title. Everyone agrees that abstinence is a fine way to prevent the spread of AIDS. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty much universal — nobody is actively against abstinence as a way of preventing its spread.
The problem is, abstinence a the principle prevention policy is unrealistic. You have to be living in a world of denial to think that saying “just don’t participate in sexual activity” will prevent the rampant spread of AIDS in 3rd-world countries. It’s not that easy. If it was, the years and years and years of preaching this message would have had positive results. It hasn’t.
Ran across this article on the spread of AIDS in Uganda. The main contention of this article is that AIDS is spreading as fast as ever in that country. In fact, since so much of the aid spending has been dedicated to telling folks “just don’t have sex”, there is not money left to provide real-world prevention like condoms. Condoms are often only available at a monetary cost — often a high cost (the article states a three-fold increase in cost of condoms). Activists say that the condom shortage is so bad that men are using plastic garbage bags in an effort to protect themselves.
Why no condoms available for free? They had them back in the early 90s?! Well, it’s almost certainly heavily influenced by conservative pressure to push for abstinence solutions instead of real-world solutions. With limited funding for these real-world solutions, the problem gets worse.
