California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) veto last week of a bill (AB 1677) that would have allowed not-for-profit organizations to distribute condoms in prisons is "another cynical political maneuver" and a "fundamentally irresponsible choice to make the world more dangerous for inmates and civilians alike," a Los Angeles Times editorial says (Los Angeles Times, 10/5).
The bill, proposed by Assembly member Paul Koretz (D), would have allowed public health organizations to distribute condoms, dental dams or "other sex-related protective devices" to California's 162,000 prison inmates.
The bill was sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, AIDS Project Los Angeles and the Southern California HIV/AIDS Coalition (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 10/2).
"Conservative lawmakers have been trying to kill the condom bill all year -- for the head-in-the-sand reason that the program would effectively endorse the crime of having sex in prison," according to the editorial.
"Stopping the spread of HIV in one of the places where it grows the fastest is a far more pressing issue than re-electing a governor who should know better than to let public health be held hostage by moral hysterics," the editorial concludes (Los Angeles Times, 10/5).