CFC and Condoms4Life
Catholics for Free Choice, the organization started to undermine the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception, has recently launched a new program called Condoms4life, aimed at convincing the Vatican to change Church teaching on condoms. The campaign consists of bill-board messages and subway ads in the United States as well as countries with large Catholic populations, such as the Philippines, Mexico and Kenya. Using slogans such as “Banning Condoms Kills,” and “Catholic People Care, Do Our Bishops?” Catholics for Free Choice hopes to convince the bishops of the Catholic Church to accept condoms as a way to prevent AIDS. Elfriede Harth, European representative of Catholics for Free Choice, claims that “All our worth-while efforts to fight AIDS are undercut by those bishops and the Vatican who work to deny access to condoms.”
In fact, the Catholic Church is one of the sole voices brave enough to proclaim the truth that condoms don’t prevent AIDS, despite enormous pressure to change its teaching. Rather, condoms encourage the promiscuity and unfaithfulness that lead to AIDS in the first place.
Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for Free Choice claimed, “The Vatican and the world’s bishops bear significant responsibility for the death of thousands of people who have died from AIDS.” Such a claim is ludicrous and ignores the fact that the Catholic Church has been one of the most important providers of care for AIDS patients and children orphaned by AIDS. Catholic Church organizations and Catholic non-governmental organization collectively provide 25% of all AIDS care worldwide.
(“First Global Campaign to End Catholic Bishops’ Ban on Condoms Launched on Internet, Billboards, In Subways and Newspapers,” Catholics for Free Choice press release, 21 November 2001; Patricia Miller, “The Lesser Evil: The Catholic Church and the AIDS Epidemic,” www.cath4choice.org/whatsnew.htm.)
Doctors Without Borders Do Abortions
Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres as it is known internationally, supports and performs abortions, despite having no official stand on the issue. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international humanitarian organization, provides medical relief in 80 countries worldwide. In 1999 the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize for its work. In addition to providing medical supplies, clean water, vaccinations, and sanitation, however, MSF also provides abortifacient emergency “contraception” and equipment used for performing abortions. In their document on providing health care in refugee camps, MSF follows the UN guidelines for minimum service, which includes “emergency post-coital contraception…free condoms to anyone who request them” and “comprehensive reproductive health services.” They also provide “standard gynecological supplies” in hospitals in North Korea where approximately 50% of those hospitalized for gynecological reasons are for abortions, A spokesperson for MSF, Chris Torgeson, confirmed that MSF does provide abortions, adding that “in some countries abortion is an important part of family planning policy.”
(“Doctors Without Borders Admits to Abortion Involvement,” LSN.ca, 6 November 2001; “Health Care in the Emergency Phase,” Medecins Sans Frontieres, 1997)
Burnt Condoms
The Catholic Church, along with Anglicans and Muslims in Kenya, opposes condoms as the way to stop the spread of AIDS. Condoms promote promiscuity, which leads to the spread of AIDS, rather than chastity and faithfulness, which prevent AIDS. Several churches in Kenya recently found a way to express their disapproval more obviously. Churches in the Mt. Kenya area north of Nairobi bought up stocks of thousands of condoms and then burned them. The AIDS epidemic has hit Kenya particularly hard. The Kenyan government estimates that 700 Kenyans die every day of AIDS.
(Julius Mokaya, “Churches in AIDS-Ravaged Kenya Buy, Burn Condoms,” 10 December 2001)
