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 Editorials | Opinions | August 2007 
Governor Emilio González Opposes Condoms
 Juan Carlos García - Vallarta Enfrenta el SIDA
 |  | The state does not agree with the promotion of condom use, because to do so would be equivalent to giving them a six pack of beer and a free pass to a motel, and with that, paying for the diversions of young people. (translation)
- Emilio González Márquez |  | | Puerto Vallarta - Most people would agree that elected political leaders and the government functionaries they appoint have a responsibility to act in the best interests of their constituents.
Indeed, it is what they promise and why we elect them. And because the stock in trade of those who choose public service is their words, and words spoken publicly have consequences, what they say is tantamount to an "act."
The Governor of Jalisco, Emilio González Márquez, of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) recently made some incredibly uninformed statements about condom use, HIV, young people, and gay men. Perhaps he intended his comments to be funny, but the result was insulting, and a grave disservice to the citizens of Jalisco.
Governor Gonzalez opposes using public funds to provide condoms as a means of reducing the alarmingly high rates of unplanned pregnancy, and worrying about the growing rate of HIV and STD's in sexually active young people.
What he said was, (translation) "The state does not agree with the promotion of condom use, because to do so would be equivalent to giving them a six pack of beer and a free pass to a motel, and with that, paying for the diversions of young people."
He went on to affirm that the problem of HIV infection is "focused among homosexuals, so therefore only in this sector should condoms be distributed, as an obligation complementing information campaigns."
Now, Governor Gonzalez is a devout Catholic, and no doubt has deeply held religious and ideological beliefs on sex and sexuality. But as the governor of a state with over seven million diverse residents, he has a responsibility to set aside "belief" and ideology, and serve his constituents based on current realities and the best interests of all constituents.
Perhaps he simply does not know that approximately 1 in 5 teenage girls in Mexico have had at least one child, most of them unplanned. Perhaps he has not seen the government statistic that 400,000 babies are born each year in Mexico to adolescent mothers.
Governor Gonzalez, we have some news for you: Young people in Mexico are having sex, lots of it. We can and should try to encourage them to wait until they are older, and in a monogamous relationship. But everywhere on the planet that an "abstinence only" approach has been tried, exclusive of safer sex education, the numbers of teen pregnancies and new HIV infections among young people has increased, often dramatically.
Still not convinced that teens are having sex, and there's not much we can do to stop it? Consider that, in addition to the number of births to teenage mothers, the Consejo Nacional de Población (CONAPO) estimates that there are 150,000 abortions in Mexico annually, the majority involving young mothers. Since abortion is illegal in Mexico, making reliable statistics are hard to obtain, most non-governmental organizations, including Grupo de Información en Reproducción Eligida (GIRE) put the number of abortions at 850,000 per year. They estimate that between 14% and 30% of teen pregnancies are aborted.
In the past 20 years, the birth rate in Mexico has declined by 50%, but the number of teen pregnancies has doubled, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). A majority of Mexican boys become sexually active between the ages of 16 and 19 years, and for girls, a majority become sexually active between ages 17 and 19. But according to a study involving nearly 12,000 teenage participants, the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP) found that 24% of males age 15.5 were already sexually active, and 10 % of girls the same age were sexually active.
And it is not just pregnancies and abortions that indicate very high incidence of adolescent sexual activity. More than 50% of all new HIV infections in Mexico occur in young people between 14 and 24 years of age (CONUSIDA). In the study by the INSP cited above, 77% of adolescent male respondents and 87% of adolescent female respondents felt that condom use was an "interruption to sexual relations." The implications of that statistic alone are frightening, and show that there is much work to do in convincing sexually active young people that they must protect themselves and others.
The Governor is similarly misinformed about who is at risk for HIV infection. Unprotected sex between men is certainly a primary vector for infection, but statistically, heterosexual contact is responsible for half of HIV infections worldwide.
To say that in Mexico, the problem is "focused among homosexuals" is both wrong and dangerous from a public health perspective. Fifty five percent of the patients at our own CAPASITS clinic (Centro Amulatorio para la Prevención y Atención de SIDA y Infermedades de Transmisión Sexual) identify as heterosexual. Of the heterosexually identified patients, 0% was the median condom use, while those who report having sex with men say that 70% use condoms. Those men who are willing to admit to having sex with other men (mainly the Gay respondents) are using condoms and practicing safer sex, while those who identify as heterosexual are not.
It is widely known that not all men who engage in sexual activity with other men identify themselves as homosexual. Many of these men are married, and seek relations outside the marriage. This group is at high risk for HIV, because they are the most likely to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse. Their wives and girlfriends are also, therefore, at high risk. And the statistics bear this out.
In Mexico, approximately 84% of the accumulated cases of AIDS through 2003 were male, while 16% were female. That is, a male-to-female ratio of 6 to 1. But in some cities where reasonably reliable statistics are available, the ratio is 3 to 1 (Puebla, Tlaxcala, Morelos.)
In other cities, the ratio is 9 males for every female (Distrito Federal and Nuevo León.) These statistics show the heterogeneity in the mode of transmission of the virus throughout the country, where in some areas transmission is primarily homo/bisexual and in others transmission is primarily heterosexual (Secretaría de Salud, CENSIDA, 2003.)
By November 2006, there were 107,625 cases of AIDS reported in Mexico, and for every 5 cases in men, there was 1 case in women. That's 16% of AIDS cases involving women.
If you are overwhelmed by the statistics presented here, it's because the statistics are overwhelming. Young people are having sex. They are having babies too young, they are seeking abortions in alarming numbers, and they are at risk for diseases. We can encourage abstinence, but the reality is; only a few will choose it.
Education and prevention, including the proper use of condoms, is essential public health policy. The flippant comments made by Governor Gonzalez last weekend should be condemned as ignorant, arrogant, and dangerous. |
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