News

WASHINGTON, January 23, 2002 (LSN.ca) – President George W. Bush is set to appoint former Republican Rep. Tom Coburn to co-chair the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Coburn has a strong pro-life record but is being attacked by homosexual activists over the appointment due to his insistence on informing the public that the use of condoms does not guarantee safe sex.

Coburn, an obstetrician who has returned to his family practice in Muskogee, Okla., was thanked by the pro-life community in 1998 for sponsoring a successful House amendment to forbid the use of taxpayer money to develop, test or approve abortion-inducing drugs. The amendment said that RU-486 is for “killing babies” and thus would violate the mandate of the Federal Drug Administration to approve only those drugs which are “safe and effective.”

At Coburn’s request, the National Institutes of Health issued a 30-page report last year concluding that science cannot confirm that condoms block the spread of most sexually transmitted diseases. At the time Coburn said, “For decades, the federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to promote an unsubstantiated claim that promiscuity can be safe. We all now know for a fact that that is a lie. This report means that when condom use is discussed it is no longer medically accurate—or legal for the CDC—to refer to sex as ‘safe’ or ‘protected.’

See related LifeSite coverage:  US GOV’T REPORT QUESTIONS CONDOMS’ ABILITY TO STOP STD’S https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/july/010720.html#4

See the AP coverage at:  https://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020123/hl/aids_advisers_2.html