Curing a Disease That 'Wasn't' (Human Papilloma Virus)

(AgapePress) - A bright, bold sweater hangs from the thrift store rack. Beautiful on the hanger, a telltale loose strand of yarn hangs from the hem just under the last bottom bright gold button. At $5.00, the bargain tempts the unwary.

But for those who take time to look, inspecting the spot where the yarn dangles, a trail of empty loops signals a sweater coming undone. One stitch at a time, six inches of hem have disappeared. Scissors have snipped the evidence. But a slow tug pulls another inch of knitted loops off the hem.

Like sweaters, stories can unravel. Consider the recent development of a vaccine for the human papillomavirus virus.

Loudly heralded by many liberal groups such as Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women (NOW), if you believe the pretty story they are knitting with haste, you might believe they have been on the frontlines of the battle to protect women from cervical cancer.

But the facts tell a different story. The facts speak to a long campaign of deceit promoted by pro-sex groups over the past ten years to pretend that there was no disease to cure that a little latex couldn't prevent. Looking carefully at the edges where truth has been snipped, it is possible to tug at a loose fact and find a story just one second of truth away from unraveling.

Loose Thread #1
The first word I heard of human papillomavirus (HPV) six years ago was at a meeting of abstinence educators. HPV was one of over 25 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that abstinence educators were teaching in their medically accurate sex-education classes.

Where was Planned Parenthood back then? They were constructing a vicious and medically inaccurate campaign aimed at destruction of abstinence education. What was Planned Parenthood saying about HPV back then? They called the mention of it a scare tactic of radical right-wing fanatics.

According to Planned Parenthood and NOW, HPV was just one of many sexual kill-joys that conservatives used to deprive adolescents of their "right" to express their "natural" sexual urges with wholesome activities such as oral sex with dental dams and outercourse. Once infected and threatened with possible cervical cancer, the "cure" of choice promoted by these groups was a pap smear ... a belated opportunity to tell a woman she has cancer caused by a politically conservative virus.

Loose Thread #2
Where was the National Organization for Women back then when cervical cancer was killing more women annually than HIV? Linking arms with Planned Parenthood for more medically inaccurate sound-bites, NOW decried the fear-based claims of conservative religious fanatics. Cervical cancer killing women? If so, NOW took no steps to alert women to the connection between HPV and cervical cancer. Worse still, NOW put duct tape on the lips of anyone bold enough to mention HPV.

As recently as 2004, at their conference held in Las Vegas, NOW leadership rejected an opportunity to educate women about HPV. Asked to support a resolution for Cervical Cancer Education, NOW leadership quickly pulled the resolution off the table and into the back room, where "privately" the NOW Board promptly banished this call for an educational effort to tell women about HPV and its link to cervical cancer.

Loose Thread #3
The first time I heard condoms do not prevent infection from HPV was six years ago, a medically accurate fact taught by an abstinence educator. The second, third, fourth, and fifth times I heard the medically accurate truths about condoms and their failure to provide anything at all like "safe sex" were at medical conferences hosted by agencies supporting abstinence education as a reasonable and necessary health response to the STD epidemic.

As far back as 2001, a comprehensive, medically accurate review of all research on condoms published by the National Institutes of Health/Centers for Disease Control (NIH/CDC) revealed the paucity of evidence supporting condoms as "protection" against the many STDs of this epidemic. The information in this report explains why one in five people today over the age of 12 is now infected with genital herpes. It also explains why condoms do not prevent infections by HPV leading to cervical cancer.

Where were Planned Parenthood and NOW back then? Putting more duct tape on their lips. Wagging their fingers at the terrible, awful, big, bad conservatives who insisted on relating these medically accurate facts to the need for abstinence sex-education programs. Waiting for a cure for a disease they didn't want to discuss.

And now ... when there is a vaccine to prevent the disease that "doesn't exist" ... suddenly members of Planned Parenthood and NOW are willing to talk about HPV ... the "conservative virus" that didn't really matter ... back then.

We're all grateful for a vaccine that will prevent cervical cancer. But some of us have been fighting the cause of women's health and prevention of cervical cancer for the past ten years. Others, sadly, have been carrying briefcases filled with duct tape.

MORAL ABSOLUTES PING

DISCUSSION ABOUT:

Curing a Disease That 'Wasn't' (Human Papilloma Virus)

The pro-sex crowd would prefer to give young girls a shot than tell them to abstain.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be included in or removed from the MORAL ABSOLUTES PINGLIST, please FReepMail wagglebee.

2 posted on 07/25/2006 4:27:35 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)

"pro-sex groups"

This is shaping up to be a one-sided contest. Anti-sex groups probably won't be around more than a generation or so.

4 posted on 07/25/2006 4:32:49 PM PDT by MamaLucci (Mutually assured destruction STILL keeps the Clinton administration criminals out of jail.)

5 posted on 07/25/2006 4:33:41 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)

There are 3 different viruses. The vaccine only works against 2 of them.

That means the problem still exists, but Planned Parenthood will have a multiplicity of opinions on the matter once they realize it.

Frankly, I think that what those people do is "cruise" for available young people to service them, probably through troilis.

According to the commercials either everyone is out there getting STDs or there is another way to get this virus, since the women say they are telling ALL the women they know. The other thing that bugs me is that I thought cervical cancer could be caused by other things, too. I would be twice as fearful of someday having cervical cancer and someone saying, "Well, you must have been messing around and got an STD."

The information in this report explains why one in five people today over the age of 12 is now infected with genital herpes.

I'd like to see a source on this statistic.

I have one thing to say on this topic. Please consider: A husband can give HPV to his wife, even if he's faithful after marriage. The reality is that many, many men have multiple sex partners before marriage and contract the virus at that time. Some men are not faithful after marriage and contract the virus at that time. My point is that a perfectly innocent woman can contract the virus from her husband. Why not immunize women against a disease that can cause cancer? My sister died of cancer [not cervical], and I wouldn't wish it on a dog.

There are over 50 different strains of HPV. This vaccine is not a silver bullet. It will probably help but no one should think that it will prevent all cervical cancer. They are targeting a population that is too young. The libs think that every waking moment of one's life is sexual. They have been pushing teen sex (everyone's doing it anyway!) to the point that many teens are tired of hearing about it. The target population should be those girls/women who are contemplating a sexual relationship. Just tell them to get the vaccine first. Not every girl/woman will need this vaccine and I am wondering, down the road, what side effects will come from the inoculation.

Who isn't in the pro-sex camp? I don't think I want to be on an "anti-sex" side. Nope... pretty sure...

What's wrong, again, with preventing a cancer?

I'm not followin' ya here...

11 posted on 07/25/2006 4:56:06 PM PDT by Ramius (Buy blades for war fighters: freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net --> 1400 knives and counting!)

The name used around 1900 was “Moralist”.
It’s an old song and dance, the names and the players change, but the beat goes on.

Writer probably meant this:

Pro-Sex: unrestrained casual sex with anyone of ones choosing,
as long as both parties agree, and are of legal age.

Anti-Sex: making sure you don't get an STD. Even if it
takes abstinence

If HPV vaccine is not a full protectant, but is purported to
be, many may be fooled into using it, then going after casual
sex, and getting HPV anyway! Since the number of incidents
of sexual contact may increase the newly infected numbers
may drop for a while, but then will increase as a proportion
of the increase in the sexual activity due to false
concept of "uber-protection"

Cervical cancer is statistically associated with:

Smoking.
Promescuity.
Sexual activity at age less than 18
HPV.

Causation and association are not the same thing but there are things that young people can do that will decrease their risk for cervical cancer. There are also factors nobody can control.

Family history.
Bad luck.

I'm not sure that's exactly the case, but I know the larger point.

I was making sport of a silly way to present a case.

If it is about values, make it about values, don't make it about sex. Pretty much everybody I know is pro sex.

A decision about a vaccine should be about the efficacy of the vaccine. Trying to attach a moral component to the decision is a mistake. Pretty much everybody eventually has sex.

15 posted on 07/25/2006 5:51:14 PM PDT by Ramius (Buy blades for war fighters: freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net --> 1400 knives and counting!)

>> Anti-sex groups probably won't be around more than a generation or so. <<

Why not? Irish Catholics lasted centuries! Although they coulnd't've been that firmly anti-sex, given the size of their families.

(If you are offended, you obviously have never known an Irish Catholic family that well.)

This source seems to be fairly instructive:

http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/genital_HPV2.jpg

I haven't seen the commercial yet, but I'm not surprised that it would be offensive.

19 posted on 07/26/2006 6:11:29 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.