Colin Powell forgot to check his brain at the door and pick up a crayon when he joined the Bush League, now he's under fire for advocating condoms to prevent AIDS/HIV/pregnancy/disease. What is the matter with him!!?!! that's just so NOT Republican...
Powell under heavy fire for condom comments
AFP [ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2002 9:39:00 PM ]
ASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Colin Powell came under intense fire Friday from conservatives and the religious right for advocating condom use among the world's youth to prevent diseases including HIV/AIDS.
At least two former Republican presidential candidates and several conservative pro-family organizations lined up to attack Powell and called for President George W. Bush to repudiate them.
But both the White House and State Department maintained there was no difference between Powell's stance and that of the Bush administration which has focused its efforts to prevent sexually transmitted diseases on abstinence.
Those comments, however, held little sway with conservatives.
"Secretary Powell's remarks are reckless and irresponsible," said Family Research Council President Ken Connor.
"President Bush should repudiate Secretary Powell's comments and publicly exhort him for his irresponsible remarks," he said in a statement.
James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, denounced Powell's comments which were made Thursday to a global youth forum that MTV is broadcasting to hundreds of millions of households internationally.
"Colin Powell is the secretary of state, not the secretary of health," Dobson said. "He is talking about a subject he doesn't understand. He clearly doesn't understand the science regarding condom efficacy."
In the program, Powell said the international community had to "forget about conservative ideas" regarding sex and sex education and urged sexually active youths to use condoms to prevent the transmission of disease.
"Colin Powell is a career soldier," Dobson said. "He knows what it means to follow the commander-in-chief. We have to assume he wouldn't contradict his boss without prior approval. If that is not the case, the president needs to publicly repudiate these statements immediately."
Both Dobson and Connor noted studies showing that condom use is not 100-per cent effective in preventing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS.
Former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes, now a television commentator, said Powell was advocating "condom roulette" and another one-time GOP candidate, Gary Bauer, told the Washington Post that Powell "should follow the lead of the Bush administration, which he serves."
The staunchly conservative Bush administration has not specifically come out against condom use but has been a vocal proponent of abstinence as the way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases especially in young people.
White House and State Department officials said Powell, considered the most moderate member of the administration, had not strayed from Bush's message, noting that he was not advising youngsters to engage in sexual activity but only to use condoms if they did.
"The secretary and the president are doing and saying the same thing," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters, noting that the administration supported both abstinence and sex education that includes condom distribution.
"So what you hear is the same," he said.
However, nowhere in his comments, which came in response to a question from a young Roman Catholic woman in Milan, did Powell use the word "abstinence," which is also pushed heavily by the Vatican and Pope John Paul II.
"It's important that the whole international community come together, speak candidly about it, forget about taboos, forget about conservative ideas with respect to what you shouldn't tell young people about," Powell said.
"It's the lives of young people who are put at risk by unsafe sex -- and, therefore, protect yourself," he said.
Powell said he respected the opinion of the church but did not agree with it.
"I certainly respect the views of the Holy Father and the Catholic Church," he said, adding, however, that "in my own judgment, condoms are a way to prevent infection and, therefore, I support their use."
"I encourage their use among people who are sexually active and need to protect themselves," Powell said |
