Every three minutes, a teenage girl acquires AIDS.
That’s 20 every hour, 480 every day, 14,400 every month, and 172,800 every year.
That’s a great deal of innocence lost.
A United Nations (UN) representative calls it a “crisis of health.” It’s that and so much more.
“In most countries, women and girls lack access to information, to services, or even just the power to say no to unsafe sex,” according to the UN spokesperson.
Young women, ages 15 to 19, acquire AIDS at twice the rate male teens do. But acquiring AIDS is no less tragic for young men. They may also lack the power to say no.
The distribution of condoms reduces the rate of AIDS, however, only “under the right conditions.” And those conditions would include not only education but also enough regard for a sex partner to take the step of protection. Still, a condom is never a guarantee.
“Safe sex” is a misnomer. There is no safe sex outside of lifelong monogamy. The price these young people pay? They pay with their lives–for someone else’s moment of pleasure.
“Last year, 130,000 youngsters aged 19 and under died from AIDS, while 430,000 — almost 50 every hour — were newly infected, the [UN] agency said.”
The UN proposes to “reach young people and curb the epidemic among them.” But how is that possible when they lack the power to say no?
The solution is not in distributing more condoms and convincing people to use them. It’s in convincing people not to use other people.
And the source of that understanding comes only from the Gospel.