From the “Great Minds Think Alike” Category… 
I bring you a post by Amanda at Imago Dei on “HPV Vaccine.” Conservative Christians have been given a bad rap regarding this vaccine, with Alternet going so far as to entitle an article, “Why the Religious Right Fights Cancer Prevention.” After blithely dismissing conservative complaints about making the vaccine mandatory, the article concludes:
But in most instances, parents can’t pick and choose what vaccinations they want their children to receive in order to attend public schools. Children are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, chicken pox and various other diseases. Public health experts recommend that the HPV vaccine be administered to children at about ages 11 or 12, before sexual activity commences. And there’s no scientifically defensible reason that it shouldn’t be universally administered.
Of course, there’s the rub: The objection to the HPV vaccine isn’t based on science; rather, it comes from a biblically based squeamishness about premarital sex.
Religious values, however, shouldn’t affect FDA approval or recommendation by the ACIP. From a public health perspective, we can’t continue to allow conservatives to depict science as a cultural bogeyman.
There may be “no scientifically defensible reason that it shouldn’t be universally administered” but there’s also no scientifically defensible reason why every child should not have the point repeatedly hammered home that abstinence is the only complete defense against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. However, that kind of thing tends to draw mighty roars of objections from the same group of people who would force this vaccine on all children because “everyone knows” that children can’t be expected to refrain from sex. The objection that resonated most with me was that of Leslee Unruh, the founder of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse who said, “I personally object to vaccinating children against a disease that is 100 percent preventable with proper sexual behavior.”
The idea of vaccinating for mumps, measles, rubella or chicken pox, which are all airborne diseases, is one thing. But I too object to the idea of forcibly vaccinating a child for something that is only transmitted sexually. Amanda said it succinctly:
No one is against the vaccine. What we are against is the mandatory universal vaccination of children for an STD.
Thanks, Laura.
The message that needs to get out is the fact that cervical cancer is caused by a virus spread through sexual contact. I am glad they have developed a vaccine and hope that most girls/women take advantage of this before they become sexually active. The message needs to get out that when you have sex with someone you in effect have sex with their previous contacts due to the numerous STD’s that have minor and major consequences. If a virgin has marital sex as her first experience, she had better be certain her husband has also remained pure or she can still be at risk. Encourage the vaccine, but educate about the risk of all STD’s. As a Christian, I believe in sex only within the bonds or marriage.
As a former health professional, I know not all individuals end up with a spouse who honors these bonds.