The Religious Right Fights Cancer Vaccine, page 1

The FDA has recently approved a vaccine that works against the the human papilloma virus. The vaccine is considered a major achievement in the effort to reduce the occurrence of cervical cancer in women, and has the potential of saving thousand of lives every year. However, the religious right are opposing this vaccine.

www.alternet.org
The Food and Drug Administration advisory panel approved a vaccine for the human papilloma virus (HPV) last week. The vaccine appears to be 100 percent 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 to limit or even prevent its use.

The pharmaceutical giant Merck produced the vaccine, known as Gardasil, which will be nothing short of a lifesaver for countless women. Cervical cancer is the second most prevalent cancer killer among women in America, striking nearly 14,000 each year. Of those, nearly 4,000 die. Poor women and women of color will benefit the most from the vaccine, as Latino and black women suffer the highest rates of cervical cancer. Lower-income women typically lack the funds and health insurance necessary to have regular screenings for HPV.

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.

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I personally can't see how administering the vaccine to young girls is against "biblical principles" that the religious groups described in the paper claim to espouse. In my opinion, that just goes to show one can be relatively easily indoctrinated to the extent that common sense and sense of logic are gone. As well as such human quality as compassion and value of life.

[edit on 13/6/2006 by Mirthful Me]