Posted on 07/31/2007 6:46:20 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The sponsors of a proposal aimed at preventing cervical cancer are dropping a requirement that young girls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes the disease.
Instead, the authors will start circulating a proposal today calling for the Department of Health and Family Services to prepare educational materials on the vaccine for parents and schools, said Jeff Pertl, aide to Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, who co-authored the bill with Rep. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie.
Pertl said this morning that the original proposal -- which would have allowed parents to waive the mandatory requirement -- would have passed the Democratic-controlled Senate, but not the Assembly, where Republicans have a slight majority.
"If it went to the Assembly as written, it would never have seen the light of day," Pertl said.
Taylor and Wirch's revised proposal now has a Republican co-sponsor, Rep. J.A. Hines of Oxford.
Last summer the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, for females between 9 and 26. In February, Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order mandating the vaccine for girls entering the sixth grade, and state legislatures around the country saw the introduction of similar proposals.
When Taylor and Wirch started circulating their plan in February to require vaccinations of all girls entering the sixth grade against HPV, it had some early bipartisan support. But two Republican legislators dropped off as co-sponsors amid complaints by social conservatives that the vaccine would lead to sexual promiscuity.
Pediatricians also raised concerns about mandating a vaccine so soon after it was approved by the FDA, and infectious disease experts said they would withhold support unless adequate funding was available to cover uninsured or under-insured children.
Pertl said Taylor still believes in a mandatory HPV vaccine because it could ultimately save lives lost to cancer of the cervix, a female genital organ, especially in the African-American community, where a disproportionate number of women die every year from the disease. But Taylor acknowledges that vaccines are customarily offered on a voluntary basis for several years until consumers and doctors become more comfortable with mandatory use, Pertl added.
Under Taylor and Wirch's revised bill, the Department of Public Instruction would have to provide information on the HPV virus and the vaccine to school districts, private schools and charter schools. It would also require schools at the beginning of each school year to provide this information to the parents or guardians of students in grades 6 to 12.
Taylor was expected to drum up support at a news conference this morning for other cervical cancer strategies, including funding for screenings for under-insured and uninsured women. She and Sen. Alberta Darling, R- River Hills, are also backing a proposal to fund a clinic in northern Wisconsin that would provide colposcopies, which are screenings for cervical cancer often performed after abnormal pap smears.
Taylor is also seeking an increase in the medical assistance reimbursement rates for colposcopies. Pertl said many health providers don't provide the screening test because the reimbursement rates in Wisconsin are so low.
However, removing parental choice in anything concerning our kids is the end goal here.
They'll be back!
I’m just darned curious why boys were not included in the vaccine. They are half the problem in passing it on, and in fact I’m pretty sure I’ve read that they can get cancer from it as well. If they really wanted to stop the spread, wouldn’t they include boys? What am I missing?
susie
“. . . but not the Assembly, where Republicans have a slight majority.”
Interesting that the GOP’s 52-47 majority is slight, but the Dems’ 18-15 majority is portrayed as big.
“Health and Family Services to prepare educational materials on the vaccine for parents and schools”
Letting parents be parents instead of Government being parents? Why don’t I think that this will be the end of it?
Yay!! A victory for parental control! Let’s hope this starts a trend.
Yay!! A victory for parental control! Let’s hope this starts a trend.
Males are only subject to anal cancer (we know who gets that).
The reason they are pushing so hard is that HPV is not reduced by condom use.
So much for “safe sex.”
Merck tried to push their c**p off on Texas Girls. Didn’t work here either. I guess Merck doesn’t like to take the heat for their own drugs. Maybe they have another VIOXX on their hands and want the states to take the responsibility if girls start dropping like flies.
Instead of forcing it on children, we should require it for every politician who voted for it.
When are you folks up there going to stop the other mandatory vaccinations?
Measles
Mumps
Rubella
Diphtheria
Tetanus
Pertussis (Whooping cough)
Polio
Varicella (Chickenpox)
Allowing girls in your state to get a form of cancer and calling it a “parental choice” seems as crazy as letting your kids get any of these other diseases.
If the mandatory nature of the vaccines is the issue, ban them all.
The vaccine eliminates cervical cancer. Very few boys have a cervix...
Did you get that off Merck’s website?
Which of those do you get through having sex?
http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV-vaccine.htm#hpvvac2
I’ll bet you could find out information too... if you looked. This anti-vaccine crap is as Neo-Luddite as the leftist Green Party.
Strange company you guys are keeping.
Does your psychiatrist know you post on here?
Why does that matter?
Yeah, but if the boys don’t catch it, they can’t pass it on. Seems like that’s half the equation.
susie
Do you not understand how it is passed along? Or, do you need a quick biology lesson?
susie
Newsflash! Kids are going to have sex. Always have, always will. (I’ll even bet some of you folks did when you were younger too.)
The choice is whether to make their youthful indiscretions scar them permanently (possibly killing them) or not.
If them having sex is the issue, I suppose we could just stone them at the edge of town... /sarcasm
That’s an intelligent response to a factual post.
You’ll be ignored from here on.
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