Bishops rubbish rubbers

Condoms were condemned last week at a conference of South African Catholic
bishops. They said condoms are a flawed way of controlling HIV, and might even
cause its spread in Africa by promoting promiscuity. But according to David
Harrison of loveLife, a South African anti-HIV campaign group, surveys suggest
55 per cent of girls who have sex under the age of 18 are coerced into it by
their boyfriends. “Simply demanding abstinence in the face of such a statistic
ignores reality,” says Harrison. Around a fifth of all adults in South Africa
are HIV-positive.