Abstinence Kills

In his effort to warm up to the Christian Right, John McCain refused to answer a simple question, the answer to which is obvious to any reasonable person. See below.

Q: "Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

Q: “But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?”

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) “Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before.”

The Christian Right are generally opposed to promoting the use of contraceptives, even for purposes of stemming the spread of HIV and other STDs. Their argument is that by informing people of contraceptives and how they work, you're promoting sex in general which leads to more disease being spread. This obviously makes no sense because all common forms of contraception are 95%+ effective. Additionally, I'm of the belief that sex need not be promoted; human nature alone is enough of an incentive to compel people to have sex.

I concede that abstinence is the surest way to guard against STDs. But that's just not realistic. While it may be true that teaching abstinence would have the effect of dissuading some from having sex, those that wouldn't be dissuaded would not be well prepared for sex, and thus would be more likely to contract and then spread STDs. (Also, studies show that teenagers who adhere to abstinence are more likely to engage in oral sex and anal sex, which is more dangerous than vaginal intercourse.)

The real reason the Christian Right are opposed to teaching safe sex practices is because they're against premarital sex, period. It has nothing to do with public health concerns. Their goal is to prevent people from having premarital sex because it is against their religion. In fact, their policies are actually detrimental to the public health. This is yet another example of how religion harms society.