HPV Vaccination

In my last blog entry on the practice of breast ironing in Africa I said, "It’s hard for us to understand the mix of fear and ignorance that leads to practices like this." A posted comment agreed and added: “But I found it stunning that in our country not everyone is embracing the new vaccine for cervical cancer. Apparently some religious conservatives fought approval of the vaccine because they felt it would encourage young women to become sexually active … I find that to be a ‘mix of fear and ignorance’ too.”

There is indeed an array of conservative Christian organizations who have spoken out against the use of this vaccine. They include the influential Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, the Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership, the Physician’s Consortium, the American Family Association, the Culture and Family Institute, Concerned Women for America, and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.

The opposition campaign has taken a fairly subtle tact on the issue. While some of these groups opposed the approval of the vaccine, most of them have issued statements that purport to support the development and availability of the vaccine while also saying that they 1) strongly oppose the vaccine being mandatory, and 2) urge parents not to have their daughters vaccinated because doing so sends them the wrong message about abstinence and encourages promiscuity. So, they’re glad we have the vaccine but they don’t think young women should receive it.

My first reaction is that I’m not sure that “fear and ignorance” are a sufficient explanation for why anyone would oppose the use of a vaccine that is intended to help prevent cancer. Any parent who would willingly expose their daughter to the human papilloma viruses that are the primary cause of cervical cancer and genital warts because they believe that such protection will encourage her to engage in the sexual activity that transfers those viruses is more than ignorant. Ignorance means that someone is unaware or uninformed. These people are neither. Their problem is more perverse than ignorance. They’re ensnared in a toxic belief system that values sexual abstinence more than life. That isn’t just a fearful response; it’s a fanatical response.

The twisted irony is that these religious conservatives are staunchly “pro life”, yet they’re willing to risk the life of their daughters in order to guard against the possibility that they might be less inhibited sexually because they've been vaccinated for certain HPVs. There are more than a few flaws in that conclusion, not the least of which is that young women aren’t likely to think about their vaccination history in their “decisions” about sexual activity. To refuse to protect a young girl against a virus that can cause a very deadly form of cancer is just nuts.

How can groups like this take a position like this? The answer may lie in the fact that their abstinence campaigns rely heavily on the threat of HPV and cervical cancer as a means to frighten young women into avoiding sexual activity. So, in an odd sort of way, these groups need HPV as a weapon. Apparently, the threat of other sexually transmitted diseases doesn’t provide them enough firepower because they don’t come equipped with the attendant threat of cancer and death. Take away HPV and all you have left is one hand clapping, so to speak. Sadly, it also suggests that just teaching kids conduct based on certain moral principles and religious values isn’t enough. There must be threats available, preferably deadly ones.

Parents obviously have a right to be concerned about adolescent sexual activity and every adolescent should be taught the obvious benefits of abstinence. But they should also be taught that any sexual activity must be safe and protected in order to avoid the threat of STDs and unwanted pregnancy. In a perfect world, parents would also have the choice about whether their sons and daughters receive any vaccinations. But this isn’t a perfect world and we don’t allow parents to make that choice when the health and well being of others kids is directly impacted by that choice – thus the list of required vaccinations for attending public schools. Unless there are compelling medical reasons suggesting otherwise, the HPV vaccine should be added to that list.