Obama administration flooding Peru with millions of condoms

by  Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

LIMA, November 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Obama administration is helping to flood Peru with over 18,000,000 condoms through the USAID program, according to two of Peru's most important Catholic bishops.

"It shames me terribly that the Ministry of Health is promoting this massive distribution of condoms with the support of USAID because it encourages the irresponsible exercise of sexuality, above all among our young people," said José Antonio Eguren, Archbishop of Piura and President of the Episcopal Commission on the Family, Infancy, and Defense of Life, in a written statement published on the Archdiocesan website.

"Sexuality cannot be reduced merely to the genitals, to an irresponsible sexual act, separated completely from its procreative intention and from its natural and rightful place, which is marriage," Erugen wrote. He added that "we should reject this type of policy that promotes a culture that trivializes human sexuality."

The Cardinal Archbishop of Peru, Juan Luis Cipriani, likewise blasted the new condom campaign in a recent sermon, in which he characterized the government's policy as: "I'm going to give out condoms, 18 million.  I'm not going to educate young people, I'm not going to educate parents, I'm not going to educate public opinion, I'm going to give them out so that there will be more libertinism, more sexual abuse."

"This is the betrayal of which Jesus spoke," said the Cardinal.

Numerous studies have indicated that condom distribution promotes sexual promiscuity, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and out of wedlock births, while abstinence education tends to reduce them.

The USAID program says on its website that it has convinced the Peruvian government to classify contraceptives as "medicine" and openly declares its intention to lower the fertility rate of Peruvian women, claiming that it benefits them economically. It spends $11.2 million annually on providing "health" services to the country.