Abstinence all around?

There's nothing too surprising about a safe-sex campaign promoting abstinence. This time, though, the abstinence promoters are an unlikely bunch of left-leaning doctors, sexual health educators and marketers.

That's because Abstinence, in this case, is the name of a new condom, manufactured and tested in accordance with Food and Drug Administration standards. The tagline: "Having sex or thinking about it? Choose Abstinence ... the condom."

Get it?

The lubricated latex condoms, targeting teens and young adults, are sold only via the Internet, "although we'd definitely like to see this in retail," said Chicago-based marketer Peter Benkendorf, who developed the condom concept with a young filmmaker named Guy Clark, also of Illinois.

Benkendorf said the product's name, and its accompanying Web promo (abstinencethecondom.com), are meant as a "tweak at hypocrisy. It's very Jon Stewart-esque. Stewart and Stephen Colbert are getting a sophisticated message across and young people understand that."

Benkendorf referred to a recent Centers for Disease Control study revealing that one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, and noted that the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the western world.

"While sex is not something to be rushed into," he said, "at the end of the day you still have to be prepared."

Abstinence the Condom was developed as an offshoot of the "Midwest Teen Show," a Chicago-based podcast created by Clark that tackles dicey issues of young adult sexual health (including masturbation, birth control and, yes, abstinence) with candid information dished out with often biting wit.

The "Abstinence" campaign is supported by health professionals, including Victor Strasburger, chief of the division of adolescent medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

"I wish I had thought of it," Strasburger said. "The United States is the only western nation that still doesn't 'get it.' Giving teenagers access to birth control does not make them sexually active at a younger age, but does make them more likely to use contraception when they begin having sex."

Interestingly, some odd bedfellows are equally unimpressed. "I hate being the wet blanket," said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kathi DiNicola. "It's clever marketing, but this is such a serious issue and we need real solutions."

Those solutions, she said, include supporting parents as the primary sexuality educator of their young people, and making sure that young people have accurate access to comprehensive sexuality education, reproductive health care services and youth development opportunities. "That's what works," she said.

Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, doesn't like it, either. He calls the campaign "manipulative. It takes lightly a pretty serious issue. They're trying to sell a message that sex is cute and fun and there are no consequences. On the other hand," Prichard said, "they recognize that abstinence has a lot of currency to it."

Gail Rosenblum • 612-673-7350