Press Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 8, 2009

Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director, (262) 796-1111, cell: (414) 416-0489

MPS Deserves "F" in Logic for School Condom Plan

The Milwaukee Public School Board's Innovation/School Reform committee will be discussing at tonight's meeting a plan to make condoms freely available to students. According to school district health coordinator Kathleen Murphy, condoms would be available in high schools with nurses. A student would talk to a nurse before he or she could access condoms. The plan is an attempt to address the rise in sexually transmitted diseases and underage pregnancies among Milwaukee's youth. Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, made the following comments:

"High schools should be in the business of facilitating academic excellence- NOT moral decadence. Handing out condoms in schools serves only to aggravate the problem of increased teen sexual activity by sanctioning and therefore, encouraging it. Sexual promiscuity diverts teens' attention away from their critically important school work. Such a counter intuitive and counter productive approach harms not only the physical health of our youth, but also their emotional, psychological and spiritual health as well.

"Research studies have not confirmed that male latex condoms prevent transmission of human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV infection is currently the most prevalent sexually-transmitted disease. High risk subtypes of sexually-transmitted HPV cause 70 percent of cervical cancer in women, genital and anal cancers in men. The only way you can prevent getting an HPV infection is to avoid direct contact with the virus. Handing out condoms gives our youth a false sense of security about their sexual health.

"Pro-Life Wisconsin opposes the sexualization of our children. As parents and concerned citizens, we need to fight this continued assault on our youth. Chastity/abstinence is the only message that will protect their bodies and preserve their innocence. We adults must have the courage and confidence to raise the moral bar for our children - to show them that we love and care for them by expecting the best for them. Only then will things get better."

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