Press Association (UK), November 1, 2006
U.S. and Vatican 'Undermining Sexual Health'
By John von Radowitz
Right-wing religious groups and political forces in the US and the Vatican are undermining attempts to improve sexual and reproductive health around the world, it is claimed today.
Experts investigating problems of sexually transmitted disease, birth control and abortion claim that progress is being hampered by conservative moral crusaders.
Professor Anna Glasier, from the University of Edinburgh, one of the authors of a new report published online by The Lancet medical journal, said: ``The bold fact is that the US has such a huge influence around the world. When it does something, it has a big impact.
``The problem is not so much that conservative forces are growing, but that the countries that have become more conservative are those with huge influence.''
The Vatican had also plays a major part in holding back progress, she said.
Her report points out that each year, 340 million new patients acquire gonorrhoea, syphilis, chlamydia or trichomonas.
More than 120 million couples have an unmet need for contraception, 80 million women have unintended pregnancies, and an estimated 19 million women undergo unsafe abortions leading to 70,000 deaths.
Cheap, effective measures could overcome these problems if there was a will to implement them, she said.
On his first day in office, US President George Bush reinstated a policy that meant no US family-planning assistance could be provided to foreign Non-Governmental Organisations working in abortion.
Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, writes in an introduction: ``Sex, abortion, birth control and sexually transmitted infection (including HIV/Aids) are taboo subjects for many countries, cultures and religions.
``For example, for largely political reasons, the USA has blocked programmes to save the lives of women from unwanted pregnancy. For doctrinal reasons, the Catholic Church has rejected simple and effective techniques that would have substantial impact not only on fertility rates but also on rates of human development.''
Also writing in the Lancet, Gareth Thomas, from the UK Department for International Development, writes: ``Some conservative forces sadly do not want to address the difficult issues of sex, sexuality, and adolescents' and women's right to control their fertility. They prefer to see the world only in terms of their own ideology. Such an attitude is pulling us backwards when we need to go forwards.''
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