Yep. Who gave the Lege the authority to override parental judgement?
Do you hold Perry responsible for what the people he appoints do?
If he appoints or retains them, he is responsible for their decisions.
hockey-doc, Giardasil may be a safe and efficacious vaccine, but it's not right to presume that all females from grade 6+ are sexually active. There are other methods of preventing STD's.
What you don’t know is how I’ve testified against the opt-out-each-year requirement (vs. opt in or opt out once for the school years) and against other anti-family assumptions (and mocking of those opposed to mandatory vaccines) at Texas Medical Association meetings.
The people of the State of Texas elect our Legislature, so we gave them the authority, repeatedly. Just as we gave them the authority to prohibit making Gardasil mandatory. That prohibition runs out in 2011, btw. Let your reps know how you feel.
Since we agree that the Governor should be held accountable for what his appointees do, I would hope that we’d agree that it’s good that he directed the DSHS to make filing the request to opt out much easier.
We don’t give the girls Gardasil at 11-12 because we assume that they are sexually active, any more than giving babies Hepatitis B vaccine proves that we believe they are sexually active or sharing needles and using IV drugs. The girls who got Gardasil at a younger age (the first trial included 1200 adolescents) made more antibodies measurable by blood test than the older women, and it’s convenient and it’s believed that it’s less disruptive to give it when they are due to get other boosters.