ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

U.S. Trying to "Export" Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Policy at UN Special Session

Advocates for Youth Cites Conflict between the "Powell Doctrine" and the "Thompson Doctrine" on Condoms and Sex Education

WASHINGTON, DC (May 8, 2002) Statement of James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth, on U.S. attempts to use the UN Special Session on Children to promote the administration's abstinence-only-until-marriage policies that censor information about condoms and contraception:

We are deeply disturbed by press reports citing the Bush Administration's opposition to any mention of the use of condoms to prevent pregnancy and the spread of HIV/AIDS and its promotion of abstinence "both before and during marriage."

Colin Powell got it right recently when he said that the international community must get beyond taboos and conservative ideas about what young people should know about condoms and contraception.

Our concern is that the U.S. delegation under the direction of HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson appears headed in the opposite direction, clearly influenced by the administration's ultraconservative domestic allies.

With 7,000 young people around the globe contracting HIV each and every day, it is unconscionable that the U.S. delegation is promoting ignorance in the era of AIDS.

We need more of the "Powell Doctrine" and less of the "Thompson Doctrine" at the UN this week. The health and lives of nearly a billion adolescents hang in the balance.

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Note to Editors and Producers: For more information or to set up an interview with adolescent sexuality experts, please contact Bill Barker at (202) 419-3420.

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