The pope vs. condoms
Of course not having sex will prevent infection. The real question is this: Does having sex while using condoms also reduce the rate of infection?
March 31st, 2009 | by Andrea PereraWhen I first read Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments about AIDS and condoms – “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” he told reporters aboard a plane heading to Cameroon. “On the contrary, it increases the problem” – I flipped out.
I remember muttering to my husband on the train ride into work that it’s one thing for the pope to believe that sort of thing because of his religious beliefs; it’s another for him to actually undermine the work of NGOs like Oxfam around the world, which are encouraging prevention efforts.
Itumeleng Modimola is a caregiver, community worker, HIV/AIDS counselor, fund raiser, and mentor for families affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Photo by: Brett Eloff / Oxfam America.
Benedict’s remarks, which he made as he embarked on a tour of Africa, set off the expected firestorm. Governments in France, Germany, and Belgium expressed concern. AIDS activists expressed outrage. Rebecca Hodes of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa told the New York Times that if the pope actually wanted to prevent HIV infections, he would come out in support of broader access to condoms and help spread information on how to use them correctly. “Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans,” Hodes said.
Hodes’ words pretty much summed up my feelings at the time. But then I came across a story in The Atlantic online that gave me pause. Ross Douthat writes that critics of the pope’s comments should take a moment to consider his actual job. “… Benedict XVI is the head of an international institution that does as much to fight disease and poverty as any NGO in the world. The Church runs hospitals, clinics, and schools; it channels hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from the developed world to the wretched of the earth; it supports thousands upon thousands of priests, nuns and laypeople who work in some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions in the world. And it does so based on the same premises – an attempt to be faithful to the commandments of Jesus Christ – that undergird the Pope’s insistence on preaching chastity, rather than promoting prophylactics,” he writes.
It’s an interesting argument. But it’s really just one that clouds the issue. Of course not having sex will prevent infection. The real question is this: Does having sex while using condoms also reduce the rate of infection? The UN agency fighting AIDS seems to think so.
In a statement released the day after Benedict’s comments, UNAIDS stated,”With more than 7,400 new HIV infections each day the world cannot stop the AIDS epidemic without stopping new HIV infections …Condoms are an essential part of combination prevention” which includes access to information about HIV, access to treatment, being faithful, and ensuring human rights.
In other words, abstinence isn’t bad. And neither are condoms. In a world where people keep having sex – Catholics included – isn’t it better to have all the weapons at the ready?
For more information on Oxfam America’s work on AIDS, which promotes women’s rights and policies that reduce vulnerability to infection, as well as access to care and medicines, go to http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/where_we_work/southern_africa or http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/access_to_medicines .
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Andrea Perera
Andrea Perera is a writer for Oxfam America. A former newspaper reporter, she collects stories on Oxfam’s work with local partner organizations in East Asia, as well as Oxfam's campaigning efforts around climate change and oil, gas, and mining.
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What’s even more amazing by the Pope’s recklessness is the fact that in most parts of Africa religion IS the law. Whether its Islam or Christianity Africans seem to take religion to ridiculous levels. I attribute it to the African’s naturally spiritual nature but nevertheless this destructive African trait means that we hold religious leaders in the highest of esteem. This is the precise reason why the Pope should have tempered his words because, unlike any politician or celebrity, his words will actually have a direct effect on thousands of people’s behavior.
Thank you for this article. On the whole your arguments make sense and (up to a point it is how many will tend to argue. But, please read the interviews with Dr Edward Green, the University of Harvard’s director of research ( AIDS and Family Planning etc.).
Green also caused a mini storm when he declared that with respect to Africa the Pope may be 100% correct with respect to the spread of AIDS in the general population. After 30 years of research Green sides with the Pope although he knows that it is not the political correct stance to take. He gives his reasons and I think everyone should take note. When one lives in Africa ( I do) the Pope and Dr. Green make perfect sense.
PS: I think Dr Green will lose his job for speaking the truth. There is much more behind the (hypocritical) righteous anger at the Pope’s words than meets the eye.
Debating prevention measures like condoms also obscures an important aspect of the HIV/AIDS crisis: how and why women are so much more vulnerable and bearing a disproportionately heavy burden of the disease (both in terms of being infected as well as being affected). Catholic dogma can serve to reinforce this dynamic: preaching abstinence and faithfulness in a world where many women are in fact faithful to men who have multiple sexual partners and refuse to use condoms is part of the reason so many more women are living with the disease. This is why women’s rights are essential to addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis: women are not free to control their sexual activity. Maybe condoms are not the answer to the problem, but preaching abstinence is not either. To me, this further proof that the Catholic church has never really regarded women as equal anyway.
Thanks Kofi, John, and Chris for such thoughtful comments. I just looked up Dr Green at Harvard. As you said, John, Green is advocating behavorial changes such as monogamy, delayed sexual actitvity for young people, and reduced numbers of partners. He points to evidence of these changes, which are more in line with the Vatican’s wishes, working in places like Uganda. I have no doubt that these are valuable prevention methods. But I think they have to be promoted alongside condoms. For the millions that will follow the pope’s teachings, millions more will ignore them. So, we have to be prepared on all fronts.