Sorry I've been so quiet, but I'm taking a blog break because I'm not feeling particularly inspired. At least not inspired to lamely attempt to make you laugh. However, I am inspired to have you get up and fight. The Family Foundation of Kentucky is lobbying against a bill in the Kentucky legislature that will add the cervical cancer vaccine to the list of vaccines girls are required to get while in elementary school. Because the FDA-approved vaccine (invented here in The Ville!) prevents HPV, a virus that causes almost all cervical cancers, and because that virus is sexually-transmitted, they argue that giving this vaccine encourages sex. WTF?!The fact is 74% of Americans carry HPV. Regardless of when a woman decides to become sexually active, she is most likely going to get the virus that can lead to cervical cancer. Are we really so afraid of sex that we're willing to let women die for it? I've set up a new blog called Kentuckians Against Cervical Cancer where I am attempting to collect the stories and photos of Kentucky families touched by cervical cancer. The idea is to get their faces out there before the public and the legislature to let them know that this is not about morality, sex, or anything else other than saving Kentucky families. If you have a story for us, please visit the blog and share it. And if your state is proposing similar legislation (California and Michigan are at the moment), I encourage you to support it in any way you can.
5 comments:
Christopher- You're good to us women-
That's why we love you so!! How very thoughtful! Denise XXoo
I needed a rushed hysterectomy at 29 as I had pre-cancerous cells and wished there was a vaccine of some sort way back then available to me!!
Encourage sex? What a load of codswallop! I'll certainly visit the site and give it support.
I had a hysterectomy at age 33. I,too, had pre-canceroous cells. I wished there had been a vaccine back then. This gets my support.
MJ
I completely agree that a vaccine will not encourage elementary-age girls to become sexually active. However, I want to clear up a couple of misconceptions. The vaccine protects against 2 of 120 HPV strains. Those 2 are the most dangerous. However, several other strains can still cause warts and lesions. The strains that most people contract are asympomatic and leave the body before the host is even aware of the infection (btw, you don't have to be sexually active to contract most strains of HPV).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine
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