The Food and Drug Administration advisory panel approved a vaccine for the human papilloma virus (HPV) last week. The vaccine appears to be 100% effective at protecting against the most prevalent viruses that cause cervical cancer. While public health professionals view the vaccine as miraculous, many conservative organizations oppose it on the grounds that it might encourage promiscuity among adolescent girls. Now that the FDA has approved the vaccine, conservatives are already working feverishly [http://feministing.com/archives/005183.html] to limit or even prevent its use.What a surprise - another hyper-"Christian" neo-con organization that wants to punish women for having sex. Even worse, they're trying to wrap their hatred in yet another "Biblical" messages, throwing in a lot of utterly false claims about it being some kind of "sexual license" for teenagers. Maybe if they were to think for two seconds they'd figure out what those of us with functioning cerebellums already got: Cancer is bad, and having something to prevent it is good.
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Despite the benefits of the vaccine, conservative organizations began to rally against it last year. One of the most vocal opponents was the Family Research Council. The council, according to its mission statement, "promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society." Last October the council's president, Tony Perkins, spoke against the vaccine. "Our concern," he said, "is that this vaccine will be marketed to a segment of the population that should be getting a message about abstinence. It sends the wrong message." He went on to say that he would not vaccinate his 13-year-old daughter.
The truth is, these organizations don't really care about the science behind things like this, or the positive effects - they only believe that the world should follow their twisted ideas of "God says don't fuck, so don't or you'll DIE!" Worse yet, organizations like these often have the ear of the administration. So far, I've not seen evidence that they're having any effect on the folks in Washington regarding this, but you never know. Maybe the Bush-Leaguers will get a spine in dealing with these folks and say, "Cancer bad, vaccine good, you stupid" at long last.
