June 2006
Onward Christian Condoms
by Lucile Scott
A faith-based group rethinks abstinence
Christian Aid, a nonprofit British social development agency working worldwide, surprised international observers in March by ditching a popular abstinence-based AIDS prevention strategy. The organization no longer endorses the ABC education campaign (Abstinence, Be Faithful, use Condoms), calling it “not well suited to the complexities of human life.” The replacement: SAVE (Safer Practices, Available medications, Voluntary counseling and testing, Empowerment), a less pithy but, Christian Aid believes, more practical approach. Some other Christian orgs, including United for Life, quickly denounced the switch. United’s reasoning? Condoms surely aren’t 100% effective, since the British Blood Transfusion Services rejects blood donations from anyone who has had sex (safe or unsafe) with a partner who’s visited Africa in the past year. Got that?
