This picture of the Human Papillomavirus is the Wanted Poster for the criminal guilty of most cases of cervical cancer. Being a parent focuses priorities in a way that few things can and being a parent of two lovely teenage daughters brings with it all sorts of terrors, fears and night sweats. I've been following the progress of the HPV vacinne for some time now, because of the promise that the vaccine will effectively eliminate the risk that my daughters will suffer from cervical cancer.
First, the vaccine had to get by the fundamentalists in the Bush Administration running the FDA. Both of my daughters have started the vaccination process, which takes three shots over six months. Fortunatley, my girls have excellent health insurance that is paying for all of the cost. Yet today I read about some action in the Utah State Legislature that killed House Bill 358 that proposed allocating a million dollars for education and immunization of the women in the state. The funds were to be used to allow those women who couldn't afford the vaccine to receive it.
A couple of things you need to understand about the budget here in Utah this year -- we have a big surplus. We aren't operating on a deficit. We have the funds available. I listened to the audio of the committee hearing while I was writing this post and it chilled my blood. Each year in Utah two thousand 11 year old girls from lower income families would become eligible for the subsidized vaccine. The HPV virus has become so prevalent that the U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates that 75% of all women will catch the virus during their lifetime. This means that of the two thousand low-income 11 year olds, 1500 will contract the virus. How many will develop cervical cancer can't be determined. What is known is that in Utah, 17 women die from cervical cancer each year and cervical cancer is the 13th leading type of cancer death in the United States for women -- something that is now completely preventable.
The cost of vaccinating each year, after the back log is caught up, will be about $500,000.00. This seems a small price to pay for saving a guaranteed minimum of 17 lives every year. The Texas governor ordered the HPV vaccine mandatory for school girls, but the Texas Legislature is already making noise to overrule the governor, but then Texas bans dildos.
The allocation of the funds seems like a no brainer, so of course the Utah legislature kills the bill and issues the future death warrants for some unsuspecting eleven year old girls.
Why? From the Salt Lake Tribune Article, Representative D. Gregg Buxton, R-Roy, (dgreggbuxton@comcast.net) said that "he has received many e-mails condemning the vaccine and saying it is unproven." First, I'm sure that the medical qualifications of those people emailing him, where nil, nada, and zip. Second, the thing I would ask every one of these "Representatives" is if you had a female daughter, would you have her vaccinated?
Buxton was skating around the issue, but Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland (jdougall@utah.gov) finally came right out and said the reason the Utah Legislature wants to kill little girls: He asked, "How is HPV contracted?" I'm sure he knew full well that it is contracted by sexual contact and I can almost seeing the knowing nods and grimaces in the hearing room. Fuckers.
My belief was confirmed when Gayle Ruzicka threw her two cents into the mix, saying she was uncomfortable with a campaign that might target girls as young as 9. "Does [the campaign] teach them about abstinence before marriage and fidelity after marriage?" I went to Ruzicka's website and was not surprised to find a whole section opposing the vaccine on the National Eagle Forum website. The opposition to the vaccine because it protects against a sexually transmitted disease is so misguided that it would be silly if it weren't so serious. The Eagle Forum leaders bottom line -- if you are immoral you deserve to die. With morality like that, who needs enemies.
Damn, I'm just really pissed off right now.
5 comments:
We are a nation with some pretty fucked up "Family Values." In fact, as soon as you hear that phrase, you better brace yourself for some new horror about to be unleashed upon you, generally of a sex-negative nature.
Please keep in mind that I am not necessarily the most sex-positive person you might ever encounter.
Ruzicka is still around?
I thought she would have imploded from self-righteousness by now.
Dan Savage talked about this same subject at the national level here:
"A vaccine for two common strains of HPV, the virus that causes genital warts, is currently moving through the federal approval process. HPV can also cause cervical cancer in women, and these cancers kill 4,000 American women annually. Who could possibly be against a vaccine that has proven 100 percent effective in clinical tests and will save thousands of women's lives every year? Those 'culture of life' assfucks, that's who."
I live in Texas and our gov. gave people the option of opting out for religious reasons??!!??
My daughter will get it as soon as she is old enough. I don't plan on telling her it is a vaccination against an STD!
Shee-it. That's all I can say.
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