Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Let's have a conversation

Friends - here's an article I ran across on Yahoo. It's about the Governor of Texas signing a bill to mandate into law vaccinating sixth grade girls against the human papillomavirus, which is the leading cause of cervical cancer. One in four women aged 14-59 have this virus. This mandate has been voted down in the House, and faces a similar fate in the Senate.

I can't imagine, as a mother, that I wouldn't want my daughter to be protected from this virus, and quite possibly cervical cancer. I am also relatively certain that no matter what you say to teenagers regarding chastity and modesty, their bodies are screaming quite a bit louder than we as parents ever can. (I know, because I can actually remember that far back, through the mists of time.) At the same time, however, I respect that this is a controversial issue, in that the government is trying to mandate a vaccine that can only be caught through sexual intercourse. This is truly offensive to some, but is it realistic to think we can control our teenagers bodies? Through hindsight, I can say that any sex I may have had in my teens (and most of my twenties as well) was not even close to being fulfilling or even good, you couldn't have stopped me with a flamethrower and a pitchfork, and I wish the vaccine had been around then.

Where do you stand on the issue?

UPDATE: Check out the great conversation (I'm coming to this issue later than some of my Texas friends!) on Morethanaminivanmom's site. She sent me a link (in my comments), and it's a great read.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here was my post on it when it first broke:

http://morethanaminivanmom.blogspot.com/2007/02/governor-requires-hpv-vaccine-for-sixth.html

anniemcq said...

Tracey - I hope you'll forgive me. I just posted on your site. I hadn't seen your post when it came out, and when I saw the article today, I had so many mixed feelings about it. I just joined your great conversation about it on your site.

Also, could you re-post your link? It didn't work when I tried it and I had to search for awhile. (But it was totally worth it!)

Anonymous said...

http://morethanaminivanmom.blogspot.com/2007/02/governor-requires-hpv-vaccine-for-sixth.html

Anonymous said...

Dang it, it keeps cutting it off. Trying again:

http://morethanaminivanmom.
blogspot.com/2007/02/
governor-requires-hpv-vaccine-
for-sixth.html