The HPV Vaccine: Christian Right threatens programs to immunize girls against cervical cancer
Reports on states' actions on the HPV vaccine begin here.
Religious right coy about its opposition to HPV vaccine
 States Consider HPV Vaccine
The drug will save lives, but will parental rights suffer?
Focus on the Family, January 19, 2007
Following FDA approval of Gardacil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, many lawmakers are debating mandatory vaccinations for public-school girls 12 and older.
The Center for Disease Control andf Prevention estimates more than 6 million Americans contract HPV each year. Its the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. and takes an estimated 4,000 lives annually.
Dr. Gene Rudd, associate executive director of the Christian Medical Association, said HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer, and the benefits of vaccination are clear.
Continue
Sex-disease shot urged for girls
By Joyce Howard Price, The Washington Times, January 5, 2007
New federal childhood immunization schedules call for the vaccination of pre-teen girls against a sexually transmitted disease that is a leading cause of cervical cancer, expanding the age range for flu shots and adding a rotavirus vaccine.
The new schedules released yesterday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say girls aged 11 to 12 should use a newly approved vaccine against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV) -- a prospect that already has been stirring debate in many states.
Several states, including Texas, are considering mandatory HPV vaccines for adolescent girls -- a prospect that has some parents fearful that it will promote promiscuity for girls who feel protected from the disease. Continue.
Call for Vaccine Takes Parting "Shot" at Parents
Tony Perkins, Washington Update, Family Research Council, January 4, 2006, posted here.
Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control announced its new schedule of vaccinations for children, including a highly divisive recommendation that all girls aged 11-12 be immunized against certain cancer-causing strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which are responsible for 70% of cervical cancer cases. Last fall, Michigan became the first state to require girls entering the sixth grade to have injections of the vaccine Gardasil before the 2007-08 school year. An article in today's Washington Times suggests that several states, including Texas, may follow suit. While FRC welcomes the wide distribution of vaccines that could prevent infection with several cancer-causing strains of HPV, we do have concerns that making the immunizations mandatory creates a dangerous precedent of trampling parents' rights. Moms and dads have an inherent responsibility to be the primary decision makers regarding their children's health and should not be coerced into relinquishing those rights. Also, since HPV is transmitted not through casual activity but sexual behavior, how can schools justify making the vaccination a requirement of public school attendance? Creating such a policy may send the message that these interventions make sex "safe" without being accompanied by the instructive primary prevention message that practicing abstinence-until-marriage is the best and surest way to prevent the spread of STDs.
U.S. Approves Use of Vaccine for Cervical Cancer
By Gardiner Harris, The New York Times, June 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 8 - Federal drug officials on Thursday announced the approval of a vaccine against cervical cancer that could eventually save thousands of lives each year in the United States and hundreds of thousands in the rest of the world.
The vaccine, called Gardasil, guards against cancer and genital warts caused by the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease. It is the culmination of a 15-year effort that began at the National Cancer Institute and a research center in Australia, and health officials described the vaccine as a landmark.
Federal vaccine experts are widely expected to recommend that all 11- to 12-year-old girls get the vaccine, but its reach could be limited by its high price and religious objections to its use. Continue
News Media Wrongly Say Conservatives Are Opposed to Cervical-Cancer Vaccine
Family groups say parents should make the decision whether to inoculate children.
Focus on the Family via Newsbull.com, June 12, 2006
The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardisil late last week, a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer caused by the human papillomavirus a sexually transmitted infection. While family advocates applauded the medical breakthrough, the mainstream media are using it as an opportunity to paint conservatives in a bad light.
At issue is the role parents play in making medical decisions for their children.
On a CNBC broadcast last week, Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, said the new vaccine should be required for every middle school girl.
"If you don't make a vaccine mandatory, many children will not get it," she argued. "If the children don't get it, they are not protected as adults."Continue
Religious right bides its time on cervical cancer vaccine
Will the religious right block new innoculation against cancer? The Guttmacher Institute notes in a new report that experts are recommending universal innoculation of preadolescent girls with a forthcoming vaccine against cervical cancer. The vaccine is regarded as highly effective. But there is concern that right-wing Christian groups have a strategy to prevent its effective use. Click here
God Squad opposes HPV vaccine for teens
By Bonnie Erbe, Scripps Howard New Service, November 7, 2005
"God Squad America launched yet another offensive in its secular jihad against the formerly free US-of-A this week. The target this time: preteen girls to whom the religiously consumed would deny a vaccine that promises 100 percent protection against cervical cancer.
"What's the objection? Preteen girls might interpret a vaccination as a 'you go, girl' sign for having wanton, unending, carefree, premarital sex." Click here to read Erbe's column.
Michigan
Michigan Backs Off HPV Vaccine Mandate
Focus on the Family, June 19, 2007
Last year, Michigan was set to become one of the first states to mandate that sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV).
A bill that recently cleared the Senate drops the mandate. Instead, it would require that parents of sixth-graders be given information about the vaccine. The bill is now in the House and is expected to become law.
Merck & Co.'s Gardasil vaccine protects against the four most common strains of HPV. Focus on the Family Action supports widespread availability of the vaccine, but holds that parents should make the decision of whether their daughters are vaccinated. Continue.
Missouri
Bill would change immunization rules
by Kit Wagar, St. Louis Jewish Light, April 5, 2007
Treating and preventing many common illnesses used to be simple.
A doctor gave you a prescription, you took it to the drug store and a pharmacist filled the order. Childhood illnesses that devastated earlier generations had been zapped by vaccines for polio, mumps and chicken pox.
Not any more. With the rise of the religious right, many of the miracles of modern medicine from children's vaccinations to birth control to emerging treatments derived through stem cell research have become battlegrounds in the morality wars.
Bills have been filed this year that would cut off access to emergency contraception and allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription if they had a moral objection to the medication. Continue.
Texas governor mandates HPV immunization
Cervical cancer vaccine furore rouses Texas
Financial Times, February 24, 2007
A row over a new cervical cancer vaccine in the US has all the ingredients of a Hollywood film: sex, the drug industry, religion, individual liberty and public health.
Federal health authorities have recommended that Gardasil, the vaccine, be given to girls as young as 11 to ensure they are protected from the human papilloma virus (HPV) before they become sexually active. Continue.
Texas families file lawsuit to block governor's order requiring cervical cancer vaccine
By Jim Vertuno, Associated Press, San Diego Union-Tribune, February 23, 2007
AUSTIN, Texas A group of families has sued in an attempt to block Gov. Rick Perry's executive order requiring schoolgirls to be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer.
The lawsuit challenges Perry's authority to issue the order and seeks to block any state money from being spent on the vaccine until that question is resolved, said Kenneth Chaiken, the attorney representing the families. Continue.
Conservatives, skeptics balk at cancer vaccine
Health experts worry that the proponents have pushed too far too fast in advocating HPV shots.
By Stephanie Saul and Andrew Pollack, The Austin American-Statesman, February 17, 2007
Racing to embrace a new vaccine, at least 20 states are considering mandatory inoculation of young girls against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
But a roaring backlash has some health experts worried that the proponents, including the vaccine's maker, Merck & Co. Inc., have pushed too far too fast, potentially undermining eventual prospects for the broadest possible immunization.
Groups wary of drug industry motives find themselves on the same side of the anti-vaccination debate with unexpected political allies: religious and cultural conservatives who oppose mandatory use of the vaccine because they say it would encourage sexual activity by young girls. Continue.
Lawmakers want HPV brochures instead of mandated vaccinations
By Liz Austin Peterson, Associated Press, Bryan-College Station Eagle (Bryan, Texas), February 16, 2007
AUSTIN - A group of lawmakers who oppose Gov. Rick Perry's anti-cancer vaccine mandate want the state to instead produce and distribute a brochure about the inoculation and the sexually transmitted disease it fights.
"We want families to know the facts," state Rep. Dennis Bonnen said. "No one here is against a family studying the facts for themselves and deciding this is the right thing to do. ... What we don't want to do is tell them that we know better than them."
Bonnen is co-sponsoring a bill that would direct the Texas Department of State Health Services to produce and distribute informational materials about vaccines against the human papillomavirus, or HPV. Continue.
HPV mandates face federal money ban
Congressman proposes no funding for states' HPV vaccine requirements
WorldNetDaily.com, February 17, 2007
A Georgia congressman has launched a financial incentive plan that would discourage states from requiring parents to have their underage daughters vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease, a concept that currently is under review in nearly two-thirds of the United States.
As WND has reported, a campaign is sweeping across the nation to implement state requirements that young girls be vaccinated with Merck & Co.'s Gardasil vaccine against human papillomavirus.
An updated report from the National Conference of State Legislatures says now the requirements have been implemented in Texas by executive order of Gov. Rick Perry, but the District of Columbia and more than 30 other states are considering plans. Continue.
Texas governor orders anti-cancer vaccine for schoolgirls
USA TODAY, February 2, 2007
AUSTIN (AP) Bypassing the Legislature, Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
By issuing an executive order, Perry apparently sidesteps opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way parents raise their children. Continue.
Texas Governor Mandates HPV Vaccination
Parents in every state need to speak up to protect their rights.
Linda Klepacki, Citizen Link (Focus on the Family), February 2, 2007
Texas Gov. Rick Perry made Texas the first state to require every schoolgirl to be vaccinated for the sexually transmitted Human Papillomavirus (HPV). The plan takes away the right of parents to decide whether their daughters will receive the vaccine.
The HPV vaccine -- marketed as Gardisil -- has the capability of saving lives around the world. But mandating vaccination for pubescent girls raises several important concerns. Continue
Texas Governor Mandates STD Shot for Young Girls, Abuses Parental Rights
Concerned Women for America, February 5, 2007
Washington, D.C. -- In an extreme executive order that circumvents parents and the Texas legislature, Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas) has mandated that before entering the 6th grade girls must receive the HPV vaccine, a shot that prevents sexually active girls from becoming infected with an STD linked to cervical cancer. Concerned Women for America (CWA) believes that it is the right and responsibility of parents -- not government -- to choose whether or not their daughter receives the vaccination. Continue
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