sex positions | Page 3

funders of
sexual and reproductive health programmes in the developing
world. If that support were to fail, the consequences to the
health and welfare of millions of people would be disastrous.
Strong European support is needed if people across
the world are to achieve sexual and reproductive health.
Make sure your MP works to guarantee sexual and
reproductive health for all by 2015.
13 Population Action International, et al. 2003. Access Denied, US Restrictions on
International Family Planning.
contraception and help prevent abortions. The gag rule
has forced SECS to separate its family planning services
from those that involve abortion, making it more difficult for
women to obtain contraceptive information and services.
13
The danger:this policy denies people’s rights and access
to family planning, sex education and sexual health services.
This is likely to cause moreunwanted pregnancies, and
therefore more unsafe abortions, not fewer.
For two years running the US administration has withheld
its annual payment to the United Nations Population Fund.
This money (estimated at US$34 million a year) could have
prevented two million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000
induced abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths and 77,000
infant and child deaths per year.
The Missionary Position –Some political and
religious groups are seeking to undermine European
support for sexual and reproductive health worldwide.
Powerful political and ideological forces are pressurising
governments to weaken their support for sexual and
reproductive health:
• at the 2002 UN Summit for Children, US delegates argued
that the right to comprehensive sex education should be
removed on the grounds that sex education was likely to
promote promiscuity. They were defeated at this summit
but continue to actively promote their agenda – and could
succeed in the future
• in the European Parliament, opponents of reproductive
health (influenced by American fundamentalists)
successfully blocked an increase in the budget for sexual
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COLD
SHOWER
SEXUAL
ABSTINENCE

Abstinence is being promoted as the only way to prevent
unplanned pregnancy and HIV transmission.
One third of US government funding for HIV/AIDS prevention
(approximately US$1 billion) is now ‘ring fenced’ for
abstinence only programmes.
14
Sexual abstinence is certainly oneway in which people can
protect themselves from infection or unwanted pregnancy.
But it should form partof a comprehensive sex education
package frequently known as ABC(Abstain, Be faithful, use
a Condom).
The US Administration, however, now openly prefers an
‘abstinence only’ agenda, with ‘no sex before marriage’
advocated as the onlysolution to global sexual health problems.
There is no evidence that abstinence only programmes
can work:
• in the US, the incidence of sexually transmitted infections
amongst young people who have pledged to abstain from
sex before marriage is as high as those who haven’t
made the pledge
• in communities where more than 20% of young adults have
taken virginity pledges, sexually transmitted infection rates
are actually 3.4% higher
15
• research shows that those who take virginity pledges break
them within an average of 18 months (still well before
marriage in most cases). When they do have sex, one third
are less likely to use contraceptives to protect themselves
16
• advocates of abstinence only programmes have attempted
to distort scientific fact to support their case. The head
of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Alfonso
Lopez Trujillo, asserted in a 2003 BBC interview that HIV
can permeate microscopic pores in condoms, a claim for
which there is no scientific basis whatsoever• in the Philippines, US$888,000, previously allocated for
contraceptive programmes, has been redirected to Couples
for Christ,an organisation promoting abstinence and
natural family planning methods only.
Promoting contraception, on the other hand, can be
shown to work:
• since the Swedish government dropped its ‘sex only
within marriage’ campaigns in the 1970s (and switched
to promoting contraceptive education), the number of
teenagers giving birth has fallen by 80% and sexually
transmitted infections by 40%
17
• the most successful HIV/AIDS prevention programmes
(such as those in Uganda, where the infection rate is
falling) are those that combine sex education with access
to a ready supply of condoms.
The danger: denying people’s right to the information they
need to protect their sexual health is a recipe for disaster.
14 United States Department of State 2004. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief: U.S. Five-Year Global HIVAIDS Strategy.
15 Bearman, P. and Brückner, H. 2004. The Relationship Between Virginity Pledges
in Adolescence and STD Acquisition in Young Adulthood. After the Promise:
The Long-Term Consequences of Adolescent Virginity Pledges.
16 Ibid.
17 Forsberg, Margareta. 2000. Adolescent Sexuality in Sweden – A research review 2000.
80%
EDUCATION=
TEENAGE PREGNANCIES
REDUCED BY
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SEX TALK
INTIMATE
THOUGHTS

Safe motherhood
“I know of many women who have died of botched
abortions.”
Esther, Kenya
Funding cutbacks
“There are no pills, no supplies. Sometimes three people
share one packet of pills. Someone comes and says
‘please, please, please,’ so instead of finishing them
myself I give them to my friends. If the clinic were open
they would ask the clinic. Now there are just private
clinics for people with money.”
Jane, Kenya
“If you don’t use family planning you just go on giving birth,
giving birth, giving birth. But family planning is expensive.
Nowadays I can’t afford it. My husband says that if I
get pregnant again it’s my problem. If I found out I was
pregnant again I would abort. I will have to borrow
the money.