Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Hillary Clinton Chides President Bush
Senator Hillary Clinton is not satisfied with President Bush's women's health policy, saying that it provides too much emphasis on abstinence, and not enough on family planning/birth control/abortion.
As I've said many times, abstinence is the only form of contraception that is 100% effective. So I sometimes feel as if there's a conspiracy to get every young woman to have sex, no matter if she's too young or otherwise uncomfortable. The conventional wisdom seems to be that young women need to get over their "hangups" in this regard.
Also, and this is going to sound VERY politically incorrect, if a woman is single and dirt poor, then unprotected intercourse is a luxury she cannot afford. (And I don't care if you're black, brown, purple, white, or what country you live in.) Now granted, condoms are not 100% effective as birth control, or as protection against STD's. That's where being faithfull, or ideally, married, comes into play.
In some ways, this situation reminds me of the use of sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. Several studies have shown that sunscreens don't always guarantee a person will be free of skin cancer. The reasoning is that people apply too little of the stuff, thinking that's enough to protect them, then play in the sun for a long time, and then forget to reapply the stuff after they've been swimming.
President Bush's administration is backing Uganda's policy on AIDS prevention, called ABC, which stands for abstinence, being faithful and condom use. But at international conferences the United States puts the emphasis on abstinence rather than contraceptives, especially among single people.
"ABC is a good strategy, but it has three parts to it and we need to remind the administration of that," Clinton told the International Women's Health Coalition, which funds and helps women's health projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
As I've said many times, abstinence is the only form of contraception that is 100% effective. So I sometimes feel as if there's a conspiracy to get every young woman to have sex, no matter if she's too young or otherwise uncomfortable. The conventional wisdom seems to be that young women need to get over their "hangups" in this regard.
Also, and this is going to sound VERY politically incorrect, if a woman is single and dirt poor, then unprotected intercourse is a luxury she cannot afford. (And I don't care if you're black, brown, purple, white, or what country you live in.) Now granted, condoms are not 100% effective as birth control, or as protection against STD's. That's where being faithfull, or ideally, married, comes into play.
In some ways, this situation reminds me of the use of sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. Several studies have shown that sunscreens don't always guarantee a person will be free of skin cancer. The reasoning is that people apply too little of the stuff, thinking that's enough to protect them, then play in the sun for a long time, and then forget to reapply the stuff after they've been swimming.
