Posted on 02/09/2007 11:44:19 AM PST by Froufrou
Children of God for Life is urging West Virginia lawmakers to scrap HB 2835 mandating Merck's new Gardasil HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine.
Following last week' hotly debated Executive Order by Governor Perry to mandate Gardasil in Texas, West Virginia is the latest of at least two dozen states proposing to add the controversial vaccine as a requirement for school attendance. However, unlike Texas and 48 other states including DC, which have laws allowing parents to opt-out, WVA and Mississippi are the only two States that do not provide religious or philosophical exemptions for vaccines.
"It is utterly disgraceful that WVA would force this vaccine on families, especially when their State law provides no relief to those who object to other vaccines," stated Children of God for Life Executive Director, Debi Vinnedge. "Even if they include an opt-out for Gardasil, such a move would be unconstitutional for parents who have religious objections to other vaccines, such as those using aborted fetal cell lines."
While Gardasil does not utilize aborted fetal cell lines – a primary focus of Children of God for Life, the group noted it raises other moral concerns. And they are not alone. Since Perry's actions last week, numerous family and medical groups agree that this is a family decision for the parents – not the State.
In a statement released Jan 22, the American College of Pediatrics noted that mandating Gardasil for school attendance "is a serious, precedent-setting action" replacing parental medical decision making with government regulations.
Likewise, Focus on the Family warned last year, that state officials, not parents, would become the primary sexual-health decision makers for America's children.
Vinnedge noted, "Mandating Gardasil is like the State mandating condoms for children. And neither one is effective at preventing cervical cancer. The HPV virus's incubation period is 20 years, yet this vaccine was tested for only 4 years. No one knows whether this will prevent cervical cancer at all."
Last year the Associated Press reported the FDA warning that, "any advantage the vaccine provides in protecting against the four virus types could be offset by infection by any of the multiple [over 100] other types of HPV that the vaccine does not cover." The FDA further noted that "the vaccine may lead to an increased number of cases of a cancer precursor among patients already infected by any of the four virus types at the time they receive the vaccine, and whose immune systems have not cleared the virus from their bodies."
"West Virginia is already a quagmire of contention in their antiquated State regulations on vaccines," noted Vinnedge. "If they intend to mandate Gardasil, they must provide an opt-out clause and add religious exemptions for other vaccines as well. Anything less would be a gross infringement on parental rights."
If I did that, I sure would have remembered it.
There is a petition by nvic.org to request that vaccine research data be made public. Please FReep this petition!!!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/896046564
No, it's called caution. Caution against having out children injected solely because the government said "It's okay", when all the evidence has yet to even be gathered.
Risk your children if you wish, be don't lecture other people about their personal motivations. How "it's all about sex" or how CAUTION somehow makes them a prude, an idiot, or "pro-cancer".
The ridiculous rationalizations you people will go through in order to belittle other people over a decision that is THEIR right to make is absolutely disgusting.
Then again, some people must belittle others in order to compensate for their own feelings of inadequacy.
Don't you think the individual should be able to decide how to remain healthy, rather than have the government mandate a certain course of action?
Living a lifestyle that would have been considered perfectly normal fifty years ago, in which one limits one's sexual partners to a reletive few, or even one, is an effective strategy for preventing infection with this disease. Shouldn't an individual have the right to choose that approach for themselves, rather than having the latest technological marvel miracle cure thrust upon them by the government?
And you're still wrong. This has never been tested on the targeted age group. I have the links to the studies if you want them. Oh heck, just go here.
It seems like the most effective way to prevent infection of one's 11-year-old daughter by a man experienced enough to have contracted HPV is the prominent display of powerful firearms.
"Then again, some people must belittle others in order to compensate for their own feelings of inadequacy."
I'll consider the possibility that AK is simply underinformed on this issue, since this is often the case with people who spew at others.
AK, I suggest you visit nvic.org and look particularly at the entries under the petition. You obviously don't realize the number of children who've had reactions to vaccines. I'm thinking maybe you have no children; if so, your input on the topic is pointless.
I continue to be amazed at the fact that so many people like youself that come to a conservative site like Free Republic don't have a clue about the issue here.
Besides the theft of the rights and freedoms of the parents amd the children involved Perry has way overstepped his place. The executive in Texas is very weak, if you look at Perry's past so-called executive orders they are mostly piggybacking off of legislation passed by the legislature or they are puffy things recognizing people or whatnot. In fact, Perry has made executive orders in the past regarding vaccinations but they have been after the legislture passed specific laws and they refer to those laws.
When the legislature passes laws there is a process that must be followed then once the law is passed by the Texs legislature then the Governor signs it. In the case of this vaccination Perry has passed a law without using that process. His executive order is questionable but what is not in question is that he has no right to mandate that taxpayer money be spent for the order. In fact, he's required to account for any money he spends.
Rick Perry is not a prince or king. He may think he can do whatever he wants when it comes to the rights of Texan parents and Texas children but he is in for a rude awakening.
LOL! After the continuous "But what if the girl gets raped" scenarios brought up to justify this vaccine, I had to point out, statistically, a woman is fifteen times more likely to get raped than she was to get cervical cancer.
That lead to the obvious question of when schools were going to begin firearms training so these young ladies would be protected from this 'epidemic'.
:-)
This is going to be interesting. This WOULD be a forced vaccination, as WV offers medical exemptions only.
Wrong. Other vaccines are for diseases that are far, far more easily spread than HPV. Measles, TB, even Hepatitis can be spread in more than one way. HPV is sexually transmitted. Period. I don't see how my decision on how to raise my kids to see how much safer (emotionally and physically) abstinence is can be considered prudish. There is more to sex than just the physical aspects of it. I know better than anyone else in government what my daughters should be taught in regards to sex. I don't give a crap what anyone else says.
If it were just the Christian aspect of things, then maybe, yes, I could understand how it may seem prudish. But I taught my teen daughter abstinence for many, many other reasons than that. I know what her background is, I know what her situation is, and it is, frankly, up to me to decide how to raise her. If it were TB or Measles, or even Chicken Pox, (which I wasn't thrilled about either), then I could understand. You can't make a choice to avoid those diseases, they are easily spread through the air. This particular disease (HPV) can be avoided in other ways than just a vaccine.
Not really.
I'm a young woman who is choosing not to get this vaccine. There are so many unknowns. I've already had one seizure that's affected my life. This has given girls and at least one boy seizures, and possibly two cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. If someone said I had to take this, with no opt-out, when I was in high school? I would have dropped out, gotten a job, and paid to finish my education privately. I don't want the government making me put things into my body that aren't safe.
If they're going to force a vaccine on kids, why not the flu vaccine? The flu kills about 36,000 Americans each year and hospitalizes about 200,000, yet we're supposed to force kids to take a vaccine that's been untested on their age group, untested long term on ANY age group (so there's no telling how long the vaccine lasts, how it will affect people 10 years later, etc.), to something that MIGHT prevent something that's only diagnosed in about 12,800 women each year, and can be prevented with routine pap smears? I'm worried for the girls just a little younger than I am that are going to be lab rats for this company that will make BILLIONS of dollars off of this. I have younger cousins in danger. My flowergirl is going to be old enough soon.
I'm getting married in June to a man who used to be sexually active. I know most girls my age have had sex and yes, a lot of them probably have HPV. I'm concerned about cervical cancer. But I'm even more concerned about this vaccine. It hasn't been deemed safe. It's criminal to make girls take a shot without knowing what it will do to them without it being a matter of public safety. If this was truly about public safety, they'd make boys take it too, since they spread it, and they can be hurt from this. It's not though.
We know Perry got 6k from Merck. I wonder if they're bribing other politicians with campaign contributions? I can't think of any other reason to push this one, unless the liberals have started praising Perry and urging their own politicians.
Very astute! I did not realize that, in my haste to note that this is evidently a nationwide effort now.
Amen!
I will add that info to my emails...
My understanding was that only three other states have approached. The VA governor turned them down. They paid another $3600 in campaign support but I don't know to whom. I don't know if WV was one of the other 2 states said to have been approached.
There are lots of diseases out there. But precious few of them have infected 80% of the female population of the United States by their 50th birthday. I don't think your argument holds water.
As for the sex-part, do you really expect that your daughter will never, in her life, have sex? If she does, the odds are good that she will get HPV if she isn't vaccinated. Abstinence isn't enough -- you have to teach your daughter lifetime abstinence if you want to significantly reduce her risk of HPV. That may work for your family, but there aren't enough spaces in the convents of the United States to handle a massive influx of new nuns.
...I'm about to look up which companies make the medications I take.
If Merck makes them, I'm going to talk to my doctor about alternatives.
If they're willing to risk the lives and healths of possibly millions of girls in order to make money, they're not getting mine.
Because in clinical trials, not a single serious adverse reaction has been linked to Gardasil. On the other hand, several people die each year from adverse reactions to the flu vaccine. Moreover, Gardasil confers long term (and most likely lifetime) immunity. The flu vaccine has to be re-administered, at great effort and at great expense, annually.
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