Condoms ‘Best Way’ for Sexually Active Youth to Prevent HIV, STDs, Baltimore Health Commissioner Says
"Kenneth Connor of the Family Research Council took Secretary of State Colin Powell to task for failing to give young people 'the truth' about condoms, but it is Mr. Connor who should be taken to task," Baltimore Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson writes in a Washington Post letter to the editor. For the sexually active youth Powell was addressing, condoms are the "best way" to protect themselves from STDs and HIV. According to the American Medical Association, CDC and NIH, condoms provide "highly effective" protection against HIV and are also effective in preventing unplanned pregnancies and other STDs. "Seventy percent of all teenagers have had sex by the time they leave high school. If condoms can help them stay healthy, then we have the moral responsibility to share this 'medically accurate information' with them," Beilenson concludes (Beilenson, Washington Post, 3/10).
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