The Religious Right, that's who. I'm not talking conservatives, I am probably speaking of the same folks who feel contraception is little better than aboortion. The Ultra-Religious Right.
Fact:
Two different drug companies have come up with vaccines that prevent women from getting a sexually transmitted virus called human pampillomavirus that is one of the main causes of cervical cancer. While they are not available yet, the trials for these drugs have proved very successful.
Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women. This vaccine could stop most of those deaths. There are articles, just Google "pampillomavirus" and you'll find lots of information.
One of the best methods of prevention is vaccinating women who haven't been exposed to the virus yet. So, young women who haven't had sex yet. This seems like a logical point of view to me. Most of the transmission is, apparently, sexual. So, what's the problem, a logical person asks? Vaccinate the girls.
The Protest:
There are groups of the religious right who feel that such a vaccination would lead to teenagers thinking it was okay to have sex.
Can the people who feel this way really think their daughters are so naive that they will believe a single vaccination will protect them from AIDS, syphilis and pregnancy? I suppose a good girl would never be in a situation where they weren't being watched protectively by a parent, or a husband, because only girls on their own would get raped. Certainly future husbands of these women would never be unfaithful and bring the virus home to infect their wives, the mothers of their children!
Logic kind of makes me wonder if these folks also believe women who catch this virus must deserve to have cervical cancer.
Okay, maybe I'm over reacting a little there. ME! OVERREACT! NEVER!
It also makes me ponder - if such a vaccination was able to protect young men from future prostate cancer would it be so reviled by the same group?
Okay, Rant Over.
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