The report was developed by a scientific panel of 28 experts who collaborated to examine 138+ peer-reviewed, published studies on condom effectiveness in the transmission of STDs. This workshop report, "Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention", is co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

     When used correctly and consistently, condoms were found to reduce the risk of heterosexual HIV infection by 85 percent (p.14). The important qualification here is that most      HIV is not transmitted heterosexually, and most gonorrhea is not transmitted from female to male.

     Additionally, these two areas (heterosexual HIV and female to male gonorrhea) represent a mere 2% of all STDs occurring annually in the U.S., and nearly all of this 2% is gonorrhea.      In fact, HIV represents just 0.26% of all STDs occurring annually in America [about 40,000 cases] and heterosexually transmitted HIV represents just 0.03% of all annual cases of STDs.1,4

     An estimated 20 million Americans are currently infected with genital HPV, making it the most common STD (23). HPV is the cause of nearly all cervical cancer and has also been linked to prostate, anal and oral cancer. While not everyone infected with HPV will develop cancer, every year 15,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed and 5,000 U.S. women die from the disease. Hundreds of thousands of other women will be diagnosed and treated for pre-cancerous conditions which some researchers estimate are about four times more common than invasive cervical cancer.

     For the remaining five diseases, the Panel noted that no evidence was available that could be interpreted as "proof of the adequacy" of condoms (ES 2).\

     The panel was convened a year ago at the request of then-Congressman Tom Coburn, a practicing physician, who had long criticized the CDC and Planned Parenthood for misleading the public about the effectiveness of condoms. "This report finally exposes the 'safe' sex myth for the lie that it is," said Coburn. "For decades, the federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to promote an unsubstantiated claim that promiscuity can be safe. We all now know for a fact that that is a lie. Who can ever know the true toll in human lives and health care costs that have resulted from the misinformation that has been propagated by the CDC, Planned Parenthood and the rest of the 'safe' sex lobby?" Coburn said nearly half of the pregnant women he cares for in his practice are infected with HPV. Most of his patients, and most Americans according to several recent polls, have never even heard of HPV.

     A law authored by Coburn last year (Public Law 106-554) requires that all federal agencies, including the CDC, and all organizations receiving federal funding provide "medically accurate information regarding the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of condoms in preventing" HPV and other STDs. Coburn has sent a letter to HHS Secretary Thompson outlining how the CDC has failed to implement the law and requesting that the Secretary "take appropriate actions to properly enact the law and educate the public with the truth about HPV so we can start saving lives…This report means that when condom use is discussed, it is no longer medically accurate -- or legal -- for the CDC -- to refer to sex as 'safe' or 'protected,'" [emphasis added] Coburn pointed out. "Condoms may reduce risk for heterosexual HIV infection, and gonorrhea for men, but it is medically inaccurate to say that condoms prevent STDs. In fact, this report is quite clear that there is no evidence that condoms can prevent HPV infection."

     Abstinence educators are committed to helping teens make good decisions for their future and to understand the truth that abstinence until marriage is the only true protection from the physical, emotional, mental, and social consequences of sexual activity, and that saving sex until marriage is the safest and healthiest lifestyle. 

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