Women's Health vs. Tired Sex-phobic Fanatics

Once again, the conservative religious forces of paranoia are interjecting their Victorian values on the rest of America, and yet again trying to interfere in other people's business.

Not content enough to try and force women in South Carolina to view ultrasounds of their own wombs in order to get a procedure to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and unwilling to be satisfied with the reduction of condom distribution to prevent the deadly AIDS epidemic in Africa, now they are fighting against widespread use of the new cervical cancer vaccine.

It might seem like a wonderful idea...a new vaccine that can save thousands of women's lives in this county. Merck is marketing the vaccine that has been extensively tested and found to be safe and effective. If used by young women aged 9 to 26, the vaccine could virtually eliminate the major risk for cervical cancer, usually caused by the HPV virus. But because the HPV virus is sexually transmitted, some folks don't want to encourage the vaccine's use.

Bible-thumping literalists evidently take seriously the idea that the wages of sin is death; especially sexual sin, and in this case sexual activity by young women. Better that some women die from cancer, than have society promote a vaccine that will prevent that fate.

We knew they didnt care about gay men and lesbian women. Fundamentalist Christian activists have opposed sex education and AIDS prevention programs in schools for years. Rather than educate our young on the options to prevent HIV, these selfish and judgemental people will support absinence only before marriage programs. Of course the dark trick to that position is that gay folks can't get married.

These folks claim to be pro-life, yet they must have to use pretzel logic to oppose use of the HPV vaccine. Science marches forward, and small-minded human fraility drags us two steps back.