Posted on 08/26/2011 10:46:47 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
GOP presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry is taking a lot of heat from some conservatives for issuing an executive order in 2007 that required middle-school-age girls to be vaccinated for HPV -- a sexually transmitted disease that is a main cause for cervical cancer.
Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association (CMA), says his group sent a letter to Governor Perry at the time. While remaining neutral, the CMA told him they were not opposed to his mandate, as long it included an easy opt-out for parents -- which it did.
"In most states, and Texas is an example, it has to be a mandated vaccine before Medicaid and other children's programs will cover the cost of the vaccine," Dr. Stevens explains about his group's stance. "Of course, the most at-risk populations for getting cervical cancer and sexually-transmitted diseases are those who are impoverished, and therefore, sometimes difficult decisions have to be made to assure that they're going to get provision for them, while at the same time letting parents who don't want their kids to participate ... opt out."
Stevens says Gardasil is an "excellent" vaccination, and he assures that getting it does not mean parents are encouraging their children to be sexually promiscuous.
"Your children may live a moral life and have someone come into their marriage that has HPV; your daughter may be raped by someone who has HPV," he poses. "And so through no fault of their own, [they may] get exposed to this virus, which can cause serious illness, including cancer."
Perry has since stated that issuing the order was a mistake -- and when the Texas legislature eventually overturned it, he gave his signature of approval.
(Excerpt) Read more at onenewsnow.com ...
It’s still a bad idea and based on an evil notion.
Thanks for posting this. I didn’t realize there was an easy opt out provision. That eliminates one of the concerns I had about Perry.
This at least puts some context into Perry's decision, though it certainly does not justiify it.
The “Perry forced Gardisil” bots don’t like to mention the opt out.
This piece is inaccurate. Perry never “gave his signature of approval” when his mandate was overturned by the legislature.
Generally speaking, there usually is more to the story.
Naturally, we all like to think our daughters/nieces, and all young women would remain totally chaste up to their wedding day. However, in this day and age, I would not bet the farm on the percentage of those remaining so even approaches double digits.
Even the best parents’ kids can fall victim to hormones. Most emerge unscathed from a health perspective. But the reality is that some become pregnant; others develop disease. From what I’ve heard from my hospice nurse friend, it is a horrible, horrible disease, and we’re talking about its affecting very young people.
If a vaccine is available against that disease, why would people object to its being made available, with the opt-out proviso? I don’t believe it encourages pre-marital sex. That doesn’t seem to require much encouragement. Kids are inundated day in and day out from birth with sexual messages. How credible is it that a teen is going to say, whoopee, I’ve had my gardasil immunization, I can go out and have sex now?
Quite true. In fact, he was quite bitter.
"I want to thank those legislators who voted against this bill. They will never have to think twice about whether they did the right thing. No lost lives will occupy the confines of their conscience, sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. I have wrestled for a few days with whether to veto this bill, or let it become law without my signature. But the fact of the matter is, it will become law no matter what because the voice of the Legislature is clear. And rather than allowing this issue to be held captive one more day by legislative politics, and the inevitable posturing that will ensue during a veto override debate, I have decided to let it become law without my signature. It is time to extract this issue from the political arena to the court of public opinion where real lives are at stake, and it is time to do so without delay"
Keep on spinnin’
The idea of oral sex not being sex (I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewisnsky) has led to an alarming increase in oral cancer (HPV).
Thanks Bill.
You also probably didn't realize that this easy out option, is anything but easy.
Ever wonder why there are easy Opt out options instead of even easier opt in options?
Thing is... if they opt out.. they not only opt out of “Gardisil”, they also opt out of ALL booster shots.. There IS no opt out of ONLY “Gardisil”.
An equal question is, did YOU give your signal of approval?
Most likely you never heard of Gardisil or Perry outside of FR and still don’t know much about either.
The Gardisil “mandate” was not to force girls with parents that cared what they were doing or would take the time to Opt Out, it was to offer some protection to the poor girls that more or less raised themselves and whose “parents” never did give a damn what they were doing if not outright encourganing them to be sexually active and possible suffer from HPV!!!
Get a clue!
Do you realize how progressive your rant sounds?
Very strange considering your tag line.
Thank you for that, it is absolutely true. A friend of mine tried to mentor a high risk girl from a large welfare family. It didn’t work, the girl was pregnant by 15 and dropped out of school. If she didn’t have an STD then she soon would have one. Her welfare mother expected the girl to get pregnant because it meant another check from the government.
This is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
“Two HPV vaccines are licensed in the United States: a bivalent vaccine (Cervarix) containing HPV types 16 and 18 and a quadrivalent vaccine (Gardasil) vaccine containing HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18. Both vaccines offer protection against the HPV types that cause 70% of cervical cancers (i.e., types 16 and 18), and the quadrivalent HPV vaccine also protects against the types that cause 90% of genital warts (i.e., types 6 and 11). Either vaccine can be administered to girls aged 11–12 years and can be administered to those as young as 9 years of age (15,16); girls and women ages 13–26 years who have not started or completed the vaccine series also should receive the vaccine. HPV vaccine is indicated for girls in this the onset of sexual activity. The quadrivalent (Gardasil) HPV vaccine can also be used in males aged 9–26 years to prevent genital warts (17). Administering the vaccine to boys before the onset of sexual activity is optimal. Both HPV vaccines are administered as a 3-dose series of IM injections over a 6-month period, with the second and third doses given 1–2 and then 6 months after the first dose. Ideally, the same vaccine product should be used for the entire 3-dose series. HPV vaccine is available for eligible children and adolescents aged <19 years through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program (available by calling CDC INFO [800-232-4636]).”
http://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment/2010/hpv.htm
ping
Perry was amazingly stupid when he did this executive order. There is no excuse for such a thing. Spin it all you like there is nothing conservative about going outside the legislative process to mandate this kind of thing. And then to hang the bill of millions and millions of dollars around the Texas taxpayers necks. Bills to be paid forever, year after year. For an unproven drug pushed by people that were or had been close to Perry who made money off the deal.
It was equally stupid to not make the program opt-in.
FYI, I know several young women who have been shot up with that crap. Each of them have had side effects. One has had what are akin to very bad migraines. Before Gardasil she never had a headache in her life.
I have a suggestion. To put this topic to bed how about if Rick Perry, in public and verified by a doctor gets vaccinated with Gardasil? If the drug is OK and he defends it let him take the stuff!!!!!
No amount of posts by you will unrung this bell. Rick Perry made a stupid and politically nutty decision to construct and sign an executive order that was certain to be kicked back at him and kicked back hard. That is exactly what Texans and the legislature did. They kicked Perry right in the cajones!
Even still, with all that said compared to Obama Rick Perry poops jobs, diamonds and bricks of gold. Go Perry!
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