Debate over Cervical cancer vaccine
Well, in case you haven't heard, there is a new vaccine that can apparently protect women nearly 100% of the time from the two most common strains of HPV (which cause cervical cancer). So, the logical thing to do would be to administer this to all women, so they will be protected against this cancer (which kills more than 3700 every year). Makes sense right? Some are calling for this to be a mandatory shot for girls entering high school. Because this protects against a sexually transmitted virus, many other people are saying this is sending the wrong message to our kids. Don't get me wrong, I sure as hell dont think that freshmen in high school should be having sex, but this country has got this topic all wrong. Study after study shows that if safe sex is taught over abstinence, teenage birth rates and sexually transmitted diseases decline. Let's face it, teenagers are going to have sex regardless of whether or not their 8th grade 50 year old sex ed teacher tells them its wrong. Yet for some reason school districts all over the country advocate teaching abstinence and rule out teaching safe sex all together. Just by looking at the numerous studies, it is clear that this is absolutely the wrong way to go.
posted by David @ 2:32 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
It would be awesome if you could get Bush to believe that safe sex programs are better. You praise Bush for most things but for things that aren't able to be tied up in political b.s. seem to be obvious to you, Bush is wrong on most accounts. The reason that teachers across the U.S. advocate no sex over safe sex is because they won't get any funding because of Bush's beliefs. I believe that teachers are probably smart enough to realize the same things that you do, but they know that money is necessary and Bush has them under his thumb. His thumb, in this case, is based upon his religious beliefs. This is wrong. Religion in politics is okay sometimes, when it is in favor of the Christians?! Persons from the conservative movement should probably get smart and realize this. I would like to see a politician base his platform partially based on Muslim beliefs. The conservatives would riot. This stupid debate is based in religious beliefs and the political pull that the religious right has.
Believe it or not, I actually do agree with you. BUT, lets face it, this "movement" started long before Bush, so dont base your criticism solely on Bush. The bottom line is that most parents don't want schools teaching their children that "if you're going to have sex, just make sure you use protection." That is mostly where the problem is.
Vaccines and protection are more effective than scare tactics. My mom told me the truth, and I am childless and STD free. All they would have to do for the vaccine is say "it prevents you from getting cancer of your girly parts" if it comes down to that.
High school students are surprisingly smart when it comes to this sort of thing. You're right, scare tactics don't work which is why you would not want to say "this shot is so if you have sex, you dont get cancer." That's obviously not the right approach. However, if you approach it by saying "this is one of many shots all girls must get before entering high school," I think it would be much better received.
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