I Wish Social Conservatives Would Just Drop Dead

I’m serious. I hope they all drop dead. Soon. Like tonight.

The pharmaceutical giant Merck & Company is working to get the FDA to approve its
vaccine for the human papilloma virus, which produces cervical cancer and is responsible for causing 12 percent of cancer deaths in women worldwide. The CDC estimates that more than half of sexually active Americans (and four-fifths of sexually active women) will be infected with the virus by age 50, though most will fight it off without serious consequence.

If the FDA clears the product for use, the Center for Disease Control will recommend whether or not schoolchildren should be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus at an early age. But, the prospect of vaccinating people against a sexually transmitted disease doesn't sit well with social conservatives who fear that it will encourage people to have sex. In their view, it’s better that they get cancer and die.

Advocates such as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins say that mandating treatment of preteens for the virus, which is usually transmitted by
sexual contact, could be viewed as tacit approval of casual sex among schoolkids.

Perkins argues that abstinence is the only sure-fire way to avoid the disease. The Merck vaccine — together with another that Glaxosmithkline is developing — would likely just treat the most prevalent strains of cervical cancer. If pharmaceutical companies launch aggressive new advertising campaigns targeted to teens, Perkins argues, their abstinence education will suffer and their promiscuity could skyrocket. Perkins says he wants adults to make “an informed, free choice whether to vaccinate either themselves or their children.”

Other social conservatives see additional insidious threats .“The biggest disaster would be that everyone would take this thinking that it protects them against all sexually transmitted disease, and because they take the birth control pill, they won’t get pregnant,” says Dr. Gary Rose, chief executive officer of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health. He’s hosting a meeting this week on the vaccine’s implications with Focus on the Family and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, among other conservative-leaning groups.

Pharmaceutical companies, together with reproductive advocacy groups such as the Planned Parenthood Federation, claim that if conservatives succeed in blocking widespread distribution, they would undermine the vaccine’s effectiveness.

Via CQ (subscription required).