Gov Perry's HPV vaccination order angers pro-family group -- GOPUSA

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Gov Perry's HPV vaccination order angers pro-family group
By Jim Brown
AgapePress
February 6, 2007

(AgapePress) -- A Texas pro-family group says Governor Rick Perry's executive order mandating HPV shots for schoolgirls entering sixth-grade not only usurps the authority of the State Legislature, but also the rights of parents. In addition, the American College of Pediatricians has recommended against the vaccine for young girls.

A conservative group in Texas is raising strong objections to Republican Governor Rick Perry's executive order mandating HPV shots for 11- and 12-year-old female students.

On Friday, Governor Perry signed an order that requires all Texas schoolgirls entering sixth grade to get Gardasil, Merck & Company's new vaccine against the Human Papilloma Virus, beginning in the fall of 2008. Perry says the vaccine gives Texas "an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer."

Perry's office contacted Texas Eagle Forum president Cathie Adams Wednesday and urged her to support the vaccination requirement, but she vowed to do everything in her power to defeat it. Adams explains her refusal. "He's replacing parents' rights with state's rights," she comments. "He's also usurping the authority of the State Legislature."

And there's more, says the Texas Eagle Forum leader. "We have a strong voice that has already said this is not a good vaccine for little girls," she says; "it's the American College of Pediatricians, who strongly opposes requiring students to have the HPV vaccine."

Adams also fears the governor's order will give young girls a false sense of security, because the vaccine will protect them from only four strains of the virus and will not protect them from other sexually transmitted diseases.

"I've spoken with a grandmother from Pennsylvania who 21 days after her granddaughter received this vaccine [the young girl] acquired an immune deficiency disorder and [started] bleeding under the skin," says Adams, pointing out the little girl's life is now at risk. "So this is not something that you can take lightly; a parent has got to know a lot of information."

Governor Perry, who in the past has received strong backing from conservatives because of his opposition to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, says the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio. But Adams notes there is no crisis, noting cervical cancer deaths in American women have dropped by 74 percent due to routine pap smears.