Last week the Times told us that under a proposed law, 12-year-olds would be able to buy condoms. That's hardly news; where I live, condoms are free at the shop and one can get condoms for free all over Mbabane. On the same page of that issue of the Times (1 April), FLAS employee Mancoba Mabuza weighed in on the side of comprehensive sexual information and reproductive health services for the youth. Mr. Mabuza mentioned access to "emergency contraceptives" (EC) for victims of sexual abuse. Too bad the FLAS communication officer didn't communicate that one way EC works is to cause abortion (by preventing the newly-conceived person from implanting in the mother's uterus), and that abortion in the case of rape or incest makes it easier for the male perpetrators to repeat their evil by destroying the evidence of their assault-namely, the baby.
Anyway, here's my point. AIDS continues to rage in Swaziland. Swazi youth have been inundated with floods of sexual education and contraceptive technologies for years already. Instead of continuing the deluge of technical sex information and devices to pre-teens, let's emphasize the positive benefits of abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within marriage. Doing so would slash the HIV rate within a generation, and would greatly reduce the incidence of other sex diseases. It would allow pre-teens and teenagers to focus on age-appropriate activity-including their schooling and personal development-without the potentially hazardous distraction of sex. Ultimately, emphasizing sex saved for marriage will build stronger marriages and families. If young people get to know each other without the clouding, confusing factor of sex involved, they will be able to see the positive and negative aspects of their potential spouses more clearly and make a better choice. Then, when they do find that special someone and exchange their "I dos" at the altar, their marital embrace later that night-and every time after that-will be something special between just the two of them for the rest of their lives. Let's make saving sex for marriage, and faithfulness in marriage, the primary emphasis to fight AIDS and build the nation. Everyone will benefit.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
