Distributing condoms to adolescents in an effort to protect them from pregnancy and HIV infection is a prescription for disaster because adolescents are too impulsive and undisciplined to use condoms properly. A 1988 survey showed that 27% of never-married, low-income, adolescent females became pregnant in their first year of depending upon condoms for birth control. A program of condom distribution in San Francisco's Balboa High School led to nearly double the number of sexually active students using condoms and a 25% increase in the school's overall pregnancy rate, despite graphic demonstrations of proper condom use. A school-based program of condom distribution in St. Paul, Minnesota, resulted in a 33% increase in pregnancy rates (from 22/1000 to 29), while condom distribution at an inner-city school in Dallas, Texas, resulted in an 11.2% pregnancy rate, a 47% increase from the rate of 7.6 in a control school. Studies have shown that even among adults with HIV-positive partners, counseling on proper condom use is not always effective. With this evidence that condom distribution only worsens the consequence of adolescent sexual activity, another approach must be found to protect adolescents from pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV infection.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), Planned Parenthood's research organization, has announced a decline in the US teenage pregnancy rate to its lowest level since 1975; the rate peaked in 1990 at 117 pregnancies/1000 women aged 15-19 years, but is now only 101/1000. An AGI senior associate attributes the decline to a greater emphasis upon delaying the initiation of sexual activity; more conservative attitudes among teens about casual sex and out-of-wedlock childbearing; fear of sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS; the popularity of Norplant and Depo-Provera; and a strong economy, with better job prospects for young people. Since messages about abstinence and consistent contraceptive use seem to be having an impact upon teens, the AGI associate recommends that adolescents continue to be provided with such combined messages. The author, however, cites evidence supporting the failure of programs which combine contraceptive education with messages to be abstinent. The data also fail to indicate to what extent the observed reduction in births to teenagers is due to a possible increase in the incidence of abortion, and overlook the fact that many teen births are to young, married women. With regard to the AGI findings, out of every 1000 adolescent girls in the study populations, 14 were under age 15 in 1990, compared to 12 in the most recent group. The author explains why the decline noted by the Planned Parenthood Federation is only a statistical figment of the imagination.
Natural family planning (NFP) works the same in Cameroon and South Africa as it does elsewhere the author has visited, including Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands. However, one difference observed between cultures is that Africans more easily learn and practice the concept of ecological breast feeding. For the most part, breast feeding has been the only form of birth control practiced in Cameroon, although the government is trying to encourage the use of other contraceptive methods. All of CCL's teaching couples in Cameroon are Black, Catholic, and from the English-speaking section of the country bordering Nigeria. The NFP training program in the city of Kumbo has been very successful and CCL hopes to spread its service everywhere that it can, including to Russia. The author is pleased with CCL's service in Poland.
Organizations such as the Population Institute and Worldwatch Institute persist in their claims that the world is overpopulated and the availability of natural resources is in jeopardy. In many cases, government officials base decisions about policies and programs on misinformation disseminated by these groups, without consideration of the salient morality issues. Cited, as an example, is a Worldwatch Institute statement, "It takes one thousand tons of water to grow one ton of grain." No source is cited for this assertion and the article fails to specify the type of grain. Predictions of massive water and food shortages, based on the incorrect assumption that the world is overpopulated, are issued as facts. Readers are encouraged to investigate the spectrum of views on population control, from conservative "think tanks" to liberal foundations.
Dissident Roman Catholic theologians who promote the use of contraception have ignored the fact that contraception separates the loving aspect of sex from its fertile nature (which does not imply fecundity). While there is no obligation for Roman Catholics to achieve pregnancy, no interference with fertility is allowed. The importance of this seeming technicality can be seen when considering that contraception offers sex without babies and in vitro fertilization allows babies to be conceived without sexual intercourse. Barrier methods of contraception make sexual intercourse impure in a way similar to masturbation, oral contraceptives generally suppress ovulation but may also act as an abortifacient, and the IUD is an abortifacient, as are other hormonal methods and menstrual extraction. Sterilization and abortion are serious moral faults. Contraception is the first step towards the prevailing antinatalism that will cause demographic collapse in rich countries because there is a progression from contraception to sterilization to abortion. Rather than leading to fewer abortions, acceptance of contraception leads to more. This distressing sequence can be extended to include masturbation at one end and homosexuality at the other. Acceptance of contraception encourages all premarital and extramarital sexual intercourse and has depreciated the value of marriage. Rejection of child-bearing has exacerbated the estrangement of teenagers from parents who chose sterile sex and money over siblings for their children. Contraception fuels fears about a population explosion when people should be regarded as important resources. Finally, contraception has contributed to the shortage of those choosing religious vocations because it has demeaned their sacrifice of celibacy. The only permitted method of family limitation, therefore, is ovulation detection.
