By BRIAN CLOWES
Part 1
(Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of the book The Case Against Condoms, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.)
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We are all familiar with the liberal rule of thumb “Never waste a crisis.” The AIDS epidemic in Africa and the prevalence of teen pregnancy in the United States have given the “family planners” ideal excuses to spread the condom far and wide, not only in the United States but all over the world.
Of course, this is allegedly done for only the purest motives: to fight teen pregnancy and AIDS. But, as happens so frequently, these “solutions” don’t work, and the response of the Culture of Death to criticism is always that we simply haven’t distributed enough condoms yet.
It is important for us to know the basics of the debate over the condom. Not only are our children secretly being given condoms in many high schools, but our tax dollars are being used to distribute billions of them all over the world every year. And this is only leading to the original problems becoming worse and worse.
The Underlying Problem. Health-care professionals know that sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), some of which are incurable and/or fatal, have found fertile ground to proliferate in societies that permit and even celebrate all forms of permissive sex. Unfortunately, most people, for fear of appearing “backwards” or “repressive,” treat this glaringly obvious fact like a basilisk — they dare not look at it or even speak about it.
The response of most “developed” world governments at every level, and the reaction of various social service agencies to this explosion of STDs, was as predictable as it was ineffective: They took the inherently secularist position that people are mere animals with little or no impulse control. So the condom pushers think that, since people can’t be trusted to control their sexual urges, we might as well make it as safe for them as possible to have sex with whomever they please.
The government’s weapons of choice were not chastity and monogamy, but “education” and condoms. And so, with intriguing names like “Arouse,” “Embrace,” “Excita,” and “Pleaser,” condoms crowd pharmacy shelves and restroom walls, proclaiming the merits of “family planning” and “safe(r) sex” on their vividly colored packages.
Unfortunately, members of the public uncritically accept the government — and the condom manufacturers — at their word. And nobody (except a few courageous doctors, who are universally ignored) seems to be asking the most vital question of all. If condoms are so effective at preventing pregnancy and AIDS transmission, why do nations that stress their use continue to experience a rapidly escalating rate of teen pregnancy and an exploding AIDS epidemic?
Due to the highly charged aspects of the issues related to contraception (i.e., school-based clinics, the teen pregnancy “epidemic,” and the spread of AIDS), there is much conflicting information on the effectiveness of the most commonly used nonpermanent true contraceptive method in the world — the humble male condom — at preventing pregnancy, AIDS, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Types of Condoms. Three types of male condoms are available today.
By far the most commonly used condoms are made from natural rubber latex. These are the most effective at preventing pregnancy and STDs and make up about 97 percent of all condom sales in the United States.
A small number of condoms are made from the intestinal caecum of lambs, and are called “natural skin,” “natural membrane,” or “lambskin” condoms. Experts generally agree that skin condoms are not as effective as latex condoms at preventing AIDS and STDs.
A third type, generally becoming more available, are condoms made from synthetic materials, including polyurethane. These are more resistant to deterioration than latex condoms and are generally believed to provide a similar level of protection against pregnancy and STDs.
Definition of Terms. Family planners use two terms when referring to the failure rate of a contraceptive method. The “method failure rate” refers to malfunctions of the method itself when it is used perfectly. For condoms, the method failure rate is two percent. This does not mean that two percent of condom uses will result in pregnancy. It means that, if there are 100 couples who use a condom perfectly over an entire year of use, only two will experience pregnancy.
By contrast, the “user failure rate” reflects not perfect use, but typical use, and includes all user errors. According to Contraceptive Technology, 18 of 100 typical condom-using couples will experience pregnancy within the first year of use.
The basic problem is that no matter how much “safe(r) sex” education is taught, no matter how many bowls of free condoms are left in plain view, and no matter how much contraceptive marketing is propagated, there are a number of mechanical and human factors that simply cannot be controlled or overcome.
Condoms break and slip off. They age and become less effective. Condoms deteriorate in even the best of conditions, but even more rapidly in extremely cold or hot situations. One researcher found that, at major condom distribution points in New Jersey and New York, boxes of condoms were left outdoors in the ice and snow during the dead of winter. During the summer months, the researcher took photographs of eggs frying on the floors of dozens of trucks and containers where condoms were stored in temperatures exceeding 180 degrees.
Keep in mind that condoms exported from the United States sit in uninsulated shipping containers in extreme weather conditions for even longer periods of time.
If taken out of the package and left unused, condoms are vulnerable to ozone deterioration, which causes damage invisible to the eye. Improper use of oil-based lubricants can degrade them. They get broken in their packages. They even have allowable rates of manufacturing defects. For example, the present acceptable quality limit (AQL) set by the World Health Organization directs that 1.75 percent of all condoms in a lot can be defective, and the lot can still be distributed for people to use.
Condom users are sometimes caught up in passion and do not properly follow the 7-step to 12-step process for safe usage. The judgment and care of the users may be compromised by the use of alcohol, marijuana, illegal drugs, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, or exhaustion. Finally, bodily secretions can get around and over a condom even if it performs perfectly, transmitting many STDs, including human papillomavirus, or HPV.
It’s no wonder that Dr. Helen Singer-Kaplan, founder of the Human Sexuality Program at Cornell University, said: “Counting on condoms is flirting with death.”
Pores in Condoms. Much debate exists over whether latex condoms provide effective protection against HIV.
The inherent, naturally occurring flaws in natural rubber (latex) are up to 5 microns (0.0002) inches in size. The average sperm cell is about 50 microns in diameter, and the average AIDS virus is about 0.1 micron in size. This contrast in size is proportional to a five-ton bull elephant standing next to a small housefly. In terms of size, an AIDS virus can pass through a latex flaw as easily as a housecat can walk through an open double garage door. However, before concluding that latex condoms do not protect against the AIDS virus, we must take two factors into account.
First, the effects of surface tension are extremely powerful at the molecular level. It is very doubtful that an AIDS virus in a water-based suspension of any type would be able to pass through a hole even 100 times its own diameter in the absence of motion, friction, pressure and corrosion stresses. And second, latex condoms are “double dipped,” meaning that all or most of the voids left from the first layer will be filled by the second. Repeated SEM (scanning electron microscope) photos of stretched condoms show no apparent voids, even at a magnification of 2,000X.
A Damaging Distraction
The Primary Danger Is Not Pores. It is unfortunate that pro-life activists spend so much time arguing that condoms leak, since the debate over pores in condoms is a damaging distraction. There is an abundance of conflicting medical literature on the permeability of condoms, and so this point will probably never be decisively resolved. Although latex condoms appear to be almost entirely impermeable to HIV, the greatest danger of infection lies in the propensity of condoms to burst, tear, and slip off.
Even if only a few HIV can pass through a porous condom, the risk of infection would still be extremely small; but in those cases where condoms fail catastrophically, massive exposure to HIV is inevitable. In cases of failure during intercourse with an HIV infected person, there is the distinct possibility of a protracted and painful death.
The next article will discuss the consequences of the condom’s high failure rate.
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