US and Vatican 'undermining fight to improve sexual health'

Published on Wednesday 1 November 2006 12:47

RIGHT-WING religious groups and political forces in the US and the Vatican are undermining attempts to improve sexual and reproductive health around the world, an Edinburgh professor claimed today.

Experts investigating problems of sexually transmitted disease, birth control and abortion claim that progress is being hampered by conservative moral crusaders.

Professor Anna Glasier, from Edinburgh University, one of the authors of a new report published online by The Lancet medical journal, said: "The bold fact is that the US has such a huge influence around the world. When it does something, it has a big impact.

"The problem is not so much that conservative forces are growing, but that the countries that have become more conservative are those with huge influence."

The Vatican had also plays a major part in holding back progress, she said.

Her report points out that more than 120 million couples have an unmet need for contraception, 80 million women have unintended pregnancies, and an estimated 19 million women undergo unsafe abortions leading to 70,000 deaths.