This first explicit statement from the Pope on the subject was congruent with previous Vatican statements that moral and devout abstinence, in place of condoms, should be the primary prevention strategy. However, Pope Benedict went further, claiming that distribution and use of condoms increases the problem and can in fact spread the virus. The scientifically incorrect statement, which conflicts with knowledge on the proven effectiveness of condoms, jeopardizes the human right to “share in scientific advancements and benefits” as written in Article 27 of the UDHR. In a global outcry, health officials and religious leaders asserted that the Pope’s disregard of scientific evidence is extremely dangerous given the strong influences that Catholicism and its leader have in Africa.

When used correctly, condoms reduce the risk of viral transmission, although accurately testing condom effectiveness through randomized controlled trials is “logistically and ethically impossible.” Condom-based prevention strategies have also proven to dramatically decrease infection rates in large populations. Pope Benedict’s statements about the dangers and ineffectiveness of this widely used contraception, therefore, are not only morally charged but also globally devastating.

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times wrote that the Pope’s words were among the Church’s “most tragic mistakes in the first two millennia of its history”; The Lancet reported that such a “false scientific statement…could be devastating to the health of millions of people.” Days after Pope Benedict’s speech, UNAIDS released a reactionary statement about the effectiveness of condoms and the importance of their distribution.

By placing a moral price on an effective and proven prevention method, is the Catholic Church robbing vulnerable populations of their right to “life, liberty, and security of person” (to cite article 3 of the UDHR)? Pope Benedict’s recent words transcended moral tolerance into the realm of science. When do religious statements overstep moral boundaries, confront human rights, and demand global refutation?

The international reaction was prompt and angry. The Pope’s influence, many said, could hinder HIV prevention, and result in setbacks for many condom-based prevention strategies in place. The position of the Catholic Church on condoms raises important questions about the impact of dogma on disease: will the Pope’s words have an impact on prevention efforts? The global reaction implies that an abstinence-only approach disregards the complex ways that AIDS, as Paul Farmer writes, moves “along the fault lines of our inter-linked societies.” Such an international reaction to the Pope’s anti-condom campaign identifies at its pulse some of the inextricable links between religion, society, HIV, and human rights.

Pope Benedict’s speech in the news:

Pope claims condoms could make African crisis worse

Global Challenges: Condom Distribution Not Answer to Curbing Spread of HIV in Africa, Pope Benedict Says

AIDS agency takes issue with the Pope

AIDS activists blast pope’s rejection of condoms

Influence of Catholicism in Africa:

On Africa Trip, Pope will find place where Church is surging amid travail

Pakistani mother seeks charity from motorists

Local religious leaders are proving to be a crucial resource in the fight against infant and maternal mortality in Pakistan’s southern Sindh Province, where a new Health Ministry initiative is in progress.

“In the communities here, the word of a cleric carries more power than anyone else. Why not use their influence and clout for a healthy cause,” says Ahsan Akbar Dhani, district coordinator of the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care in Pakistan. Leaflets, distributed at local madrasahs (Islamic religious schools), urge Imams to incorporate messages stressing the importance of good hygiene, TT (Tetanus Toxoid) inoculations for mothers and immunizations for infants.

According to USAID, one in 23 Pakistani women dies in childbirth, compared to one in 5,000 women in developed countries, while in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 135 out of every 1,000 children under the age of five die from curable illnesses. By involving the religious leaders in the health awareness campaign, the Health Ministry hopes to counter misconceptions about vaccinations and even oral rehydration salts, which some people believe may cause impotence. The leaflets contain the footnote “May Allah always give us the strength to stay clean and protect ourselves and others from diseases as well as disseminate information with regards to health and hygiene, Amen.” By using both religious language and the mosque’s pulpit to spread public health messages, the Health Ministry has initiated an effectual method of creating better health outcomes in local communities.

For more information, see links below the fold.

WHO: Pakistan

USAID: Pakistan

IRIN Asia reports on Imams involved in the Pakistan health initiative

Protesters seek legalization of abortion in Brazil

It may be hard to imagine a 9-year-old, all of 79 pounds and four feet tall, 15 weeks pregnant with twins. Now compound that image with the girl’s story– sexually abused repeatedly, allegedly by her stepfather, since the age of 6. While the alleged rape should be enough to raise media attention, it is the tense controversy over reproductive rights in the predominantly Catholic country that is making headlines after the medical team who performed the legal abortion, as well as the girl’s mother, were summarily excommunicated by the Church.

Brazilian Minister of Health Jose Gomes Temporao declared, “It is legitimate for the church to have its dogmas, but theses dogmas must not be imposed on society as a whole.” Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of the coastal city of Recife countered in a TIME interview, “They took the life of an innocent… Taking that life cannot be ignored.”

The case highlights both the great intersection between religion and health in Brazil and also the critical feature of abortion-access and abuse in the country. Unwanted pregnancy and clandestine abortions are, sadly, a constant in the nation, in which abortion is only permissible in the case of rape or endangerment to the life of the mother. In fact, a new report by Brazil’s IPAS, a non-governmental organization, indicates that each year more than 1 million women undergo illegal abortions in Brazil. Moreover, the head of the Latin America’s most prominent women’s health clinic, Pérola Byington Hospital in São Paolo, Dr. Jefferson Drezett, estimates that 1 in 3 pregnancies in the country is unwanted. In the Pérola Byington Hospital, which specializes in treating victims of sexual violence, 13 out of 47 abortions performed in the past year involved girls under the age of 18.

In a country where, according to IPAS, 250,000 women a year are treated by doctors for traumas due to botched abortions, it is alarming that the reproductive health of women is subject to religious scrutiny and criminalization. Until Brazil can separate religious doctrine from medical treatment, victimized women like the abused 9-year-old may still have to endure a situation in which dogma is placed above their reproductive rights.

Open your perspective:

New York Times: Abuse in Brazil