Catholics Ignoe ‘Rules’ On Sex … A recent survey in Britain reveals that most practicing Catholics ignore the curch’s ban on contraception and a majority think the ban should be revised. 

In the Tablet’s survey, 82% of respondents said they were familiar with the church’s teaching.

A total of 15.7% regarded the teaching as right; the same proportion
thought it was wrong, while 54.3% thought it should be revisited.

The survey found 68.8% had used or would not mind using condoms, while the contraceptive pill is used by 54.5%.

If Black America Were a Country it Would Rank 16th in the World for AIDS Prevalence … Amie covered this earlier this week when the report detailing this jarring fact was released.  Since then the New York Times has ran a story detailing more upsetting realities about the state of HIV/AIDS in Black America:

Nearly 600,000 African-Americans are living with H.I.V., the virus that
causes AIDS, and up to 30,000 are becoming infected each year. When
adjusted for age, their death rate is two and a half times that of
infected whites, the report said. Partly as a result, the hypothetical
nation of black America would rank below 104 other countries in life
expectancy.

Today Adrienne Germain, President of the International Women’s Health Coalition, wrote a letter to the editor calling attention to the New York Times’ omission of the particular impact AIDS has on Black women:

“U.S. Blacks, if a Nation, Would Rank High on AIDS” (news article,
July 30) doesn’t acknowledge the severe burden that AIDS has put on
African-American women. For example, H.I.V. infection is the leading
cause of death for African-American women ages 25 to 34 years.

Similarly,
the United Nations report released on Tuesday on the worldwide AIDS
epidemic played down the enormous and growing burden of H.I.V. and AIDS
on women, especially young women and girls.

Prevention for girls
and women, no matter where they live, requires protection from sexual
coercion and violence, access to reproductive health services and
comprehensive sexuality education for all young people. American
policies at home and abroad must be modified to address these needs.