National Review Examines the Rise in Popularity of Condoms
National Review this week profiles how the "condom's back ... [and] better than ever." According to National Review, the "'have safe sex, use a condom' message was not being touted as the universal solution it once was" over the last decade, but condoms and safe-sex messages "appea[r] to be back in style." The article says that shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Planned Parenthood began selling "patriotic" prophylactics, and the University of Arizona decided last semester to offer students bulk discounts on condoms. Olympic officials are also planning to distribute condoms at the upcoming Salt Lake City Games. However, Generation Life, a Boise, Idaho-based group of college students, intends to protest the Olympic condom distribution, saying that the games should be about "virtues, like the spirit of unity and sportsmanship, not recreational sex, not even safe sex." According to National Review, condom ad campaigns are also gaining new life. Catholics for a Free Choice is sponsoring ads -- including billboards and subway and bus station posters -- in Washington, D.C., and several other cities around the world protesting the Catholic Church's objection to condoms. The Catholic Church objects to the campaign, saying that "no one has ever died of AIDS because he obeyed Catholic Church teaching on sex." The full article is available online (Lopez, National Review, 2/5).
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