The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is again announcing a healthcare crisis that is surging in America. The facts are stark and threatening. 

The crisis involves syphilis. For a long time, campaigns against promiscuity have been effective in increasing public awareness of the causes and effects of the disease. Antibiotic treatment has also helped dramatically to bring the disease under control.

From a high of 450 syphilis cases per 100,000 people in the forties, the cases dwindled to the point that some believed the illness would be effectively eliminated in America at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Rates Now Spiraling Due to Cultural Changes

However, this disappearance did not happen. The low rate of under 32,000 syphilis cases in 2000  figure spiraled to more than 207,000 in 2022. The problem is not going away.

The reasons are not all medical. Like so many things associated with the CDC these days, the centers are introducing cultural and leftist factors into the equation that could be costing American lives by failing to address causes.

For example, the center reports that the crisis is especially affecting "pregnant people" and their babies. The use of the term “pregnant people” is a telltale sign that the CDC is introducing woke ideas in its medicine. Accompanying this designation is the acceptance of the promiscuous lifestyles and practices that favor the spread of syphilis.

The Tragedy of Pregnant Mothers

The cases of pregnant mothers are especially tragic and urgent. The maternal rate for syphilis during pregnancy stood at 280 per 100,000 births in 2022, up from 87 per 100,000 births in 2016.

What makes the illness so devastating is that pregnant women (not people) can pass the syphilis infection to their babies in the womb.

The disease can have the following effects:  miscarriage, stillbirth, blindness, premature birth, severe post-birth health problems or the infant’s death. Over 3,700 babies were born with syphilis in 2022, ten times more than in 2012.

A Refusal to Deal With Causes

Many historians trace the origins of the disease to the New World, where it later passed to Europe after the return of Columbus.

A logical strategy for diminishing the number of cases would be to discourage promiscuous lives. Such actions would deal with the problem before it happens, not after.

However, the CDC has ruled out such a strategy. Its principal focus is to promote testing of those living promiscuously. Healthcare officials insist that blood tests for the sexually active would be a significant step in bringing the numbers down.

The Traditional Approach Is Abandoned

Thus, the CDC departs from the traditional approach toward syphilis and adopts an agenda following all the talking points of the sexual revolution that have resulted in so much misery and death.

The old strategy was clear. It did not solve the moral problem but demonstrated the dangers of contracting the disease by recommending a sure way of avoiding it: abstaining from sexual promiscuity.

The measure consisted of a widespread educational campaign about the dangers of promiscuous behavior. There was an element of fear attached to the disease since people could see the consequences of their actions.

However, there was also a social stigma attached to the disease whereby the people sensed the immoral aspect of their behavior. This fear of shame also had its role in controlling the highly contagious disease.

Both these healthy fears helped people avoid the occasions of risk. It lowered the number of syphilis cases. This approach depended upon a vibrant social infrastructure to convey its message.

The Breakdown of Public Health

However, this policy is no longer in place. Officials claim that the public health infrastructure has imploded. With the breakdown of the family and community, educational campaigns are more difficult.

Above all, there is no longer the same sense of public morality or the religious notion of sin that condemns sexual promiscuity. Sexual relationships outside of marriage are now mainstream. Clergy and civil leaders do not warn about this threat to society.

More than a third of syphilis cases, for example, occur in men who have sex with men, because this group, which represents some four percent of the male population in America, is more likely to have multiple recent sexual partners.

Normalizing Sexual Exploration, not Vilifying It

Thus, the CDC has fully adopted the sexual revolution as its guide for dealing with the crisis. It now automatically assumes that all people will be sexually active and seeks to do damage control when the consequences destroy health -- and even harm innocent babies.

Testing for syphilis is the principal instrument of prevention. CDC officials are insisting that this testing be destigmatized. People should feel no remorse for their behaviors or for infecting others. The idea is to turn the test into an almost mechanical checkup done after being sexually active. This policy assures people and partners that they can continue the destructive relationships that cause disease.

Officials call for doing away with the fear factor. There should be no more fear of the disease since antibiotic treatments (now in short supply) can make syphilis go away. Acts need not have consequences.

People no longer need to have shame but can proclaim their sexuality proudly during these visits that resemble almost a flu checkup. All moral considerations are off the table.

Above all, the CDC gives the government a major role in fighting syphilis by providing funding, designing programs and reaching out to disadvantaged communities. The CDC instructions manage to insert identity politics into the equation by blaming economic inequalities, not moral behaviors, for the surge.

This is a moral problem that must be part of the solution. The result of this CDC policy will have the effect of throwing gasoline on a fire. It will stroke the unbridled passions to greater intensity -- and harm those babies that survive abortion.

Image: Library of Congress