Over the objections of parents and religious leaders, the Boston School Committee voted on March 16 to distribute condoms at school based health clinics in Boston Public Schools. The School Committee, which is appointed by the mayor, voted six to one in favor of the proposal which was prepared on the personal initiative of Boston mayor Thomas Menino, an outspoken proponent of condoms. Among the School Committee members voting to support the plan was Dr. Elizabeth Reilinger, President of Crittendon Hastings House, one of the city’s major abortuaries.
The condom proposal was endorsed by the Menino administration, the National Organization for Women, the AIDS Action Committee, ACT-UP, Massachusetts Governor William Weld, and pro- abortion Boston City Councillor Maura Hennigan.
Numerous Protestant ministers from Boston’s black community, along with Father Richard Clancy and Catholic League Operations Director C. Joseph Doyle testified in opposition to the plan. Doyle was quoted in the local and national media calling the measure “a policy of despair and a taxpayer funded assault on traditional values…. It is not the lack of condoms, but the absence of values that threatens teenagers today,” Doyle said. -CJD
