Alabama Clinic's AIDS Outreach Program Suspended After Complaints About Kits

Franklin Primary Health Center in Mobile, Ala., has suspended the activities of its HIV/AIDS outreach team after hearing complaints that staff members handed out contraceptives to teenagers at the Senior Bowl football game last weekend. Vinicky Bryant of Moss Point, Miss., said her 16-year-old daughter and her daughter's boyfriend attended the game and encountered health center staff in the parking lot of Ladd-Peebles Stadium. She said the couple was handed bags containing prophylactics, a tube of non-spermicidal lubricant and a card reading, "The Perfect Nightcap, compliments of Franklin Primary Health Center." Center CEO Charles White said Tuesday he did not know about the language on the business cards or the plan to distribute the packets at the game, and would not have approved either. White said he would suspend the activities of the health center's HIV/AIDS outreach team until he can examine its plans. Reprimands are possible, he said. Staff members told him they did not target youths, White said.

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