Posted on 02/06/2007 8:45:52 AM PST by Froufrou
Gov. Rick Perry stood firm Monday against a political firestorm ignited by his order that sixth-grade girls be inoculated against a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer.
Social conservatives from Austin to Washington joined some state lawmakers in calling for Perry to reverse his executive order making Texas the first state to mandate the human papillomavirus vaccine for girls entering sixth grade in September 2008.
Several legislators expressed outrage that Perry circumvented the legislative process. Several bills had been filed to make the HPV shots mandatory for school enrollment.
"This needs closer examination. How much will it cost the state?" Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, said at a news conference.
"Most importantly, as a mother of four daughters I want to make sure our daughters' health is protected and parental rights are preserved."
Another senator, Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, said he'd file legislation to reverse Perry's order, which he said was not in the best interest of the state.
Parents will be able to opt their 11- and 12-year-old daughters out of the program, as they can for other required vaccines.
As speculation swirled about why Perry risked angering his conservative base, political observers said the governor is showing newfound independence and may be trying to raise his national profile as a potential vice presidential candidate.
The governor's spokesman also indicated that first lady Anita Perry's strong support for the vaccine might have played a role in the decision. A former nurse and the daughter of a doctor, Anita Perry works for an organization dealing with sexual assaults.
"I know they have discussed it, and it's something they both feel very strongly about," the spokesman, Robert Black, said.
In a statement, Perry addressed criticism that the vaccine could send a message that teenage sex is permissible.
"Providing the HPV vaccine doesn't promote sexual promiscuity any more than providing the Hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use," he said.
"If the medical community developed a vaccine for lung cancer, would the same critics oppose it claiming it would encourage smoking?"
Perry's office said it would cost the state $29 million for its share of inoculating students who are uninsured or on government health programs. Federal funds also will be available for children on Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Federal health authorities last year recommended girls and young women get the vaccine, which prevents infection by four common strains of the HPV virus, which can cause cervical cancer years after infection.
Cervical cancer accounts for 3,700 deaths a year in the United States, including nearly 400 in Texas.
House Ways and Means Chairman Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, said he supports the vaccine but noted that other state legislatures have decided not to make it mandatory.
"What kind of deal was made?" asked Keffer, referring to comments by Cathie Adams, president of Texas Eagle Forum, that Perry's political ties with drug company Merck may have influenced the decision.
Perry's office has denied he was influenced by anything other than health concerns. His ex-chief of staff, Mike Toomey, is a lobbyist for Merck and Perry got $6,000 in contributions from the drug manufacturer's political action committee.
Black said Perry and Toomey never discussed the issue, and noted the Merck campaign contributions were relatively small.
"The governor is very pro-life, and he views this as protecting life," Black said. "The human race has never had an opportunity to prevent cancer. Not to pursue that opportunity, the governor believes that would be morally reprehensible."
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick both said Perry did not consult them. Craddick said he didn't have a position on the issue. Dewhurst said he would prefer a voluntary vaccination program.
GOP consultant Royal Masset said he thinks Perry wants to be considered as a national leader. Perry talked about international terrorism and immigration reform in his inaugural address.
"Health care is one of the most powerful issues we're going to be dealing with nationally," Masset said.
Meanwhile, a Christian group knocked the Texas governor in a Washington update mailed to supporters Monday.
Tony Perkins with Family Research Council said, "By commandeering this issue, Gov. Perry, who has championed family values, has only succeeded in arousing more mistrust."
"Sanofi Pasteur -- the Merck- and Sanofi Aventis-owned vaccine producer -- on Wednesday announced that an analysis of a Phase II clinical trial of the company's experimental human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil shows that it is effective in preventing cervical neoplasia and external lesions for five years, AFX/Euro2day reports (AFX/Euro2day, 4/26). Merck in October 2005 announced that Gardasil in clinical trials was 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=42307
Cancer-causing, even rarely, is not relatively harmless.
Big BTTT
The hepatitis you are vaccinated for can be caught by casual contact, bodily fluid contact, blood contact, and kids are pretty darn sloppy in school, share drinks, joints cigarettes, and punch each other in the nose.
Hepititus is a far more serious diease as well. HPV is not.
Those aren't for STD's.
True, but it does have 'casual' causes, and is very infectious. According to WebMD, Hepatitis B is spread by infected blood and other bodily fluids such as semen, vaginal secretions, saliva, open sores, and breast milk.
At public school, there are always a plethora of kids with open sores, and of course, kids see no problem with sharing a cup or whatever so that saliva can be 'shared'.
pissant you need to straighten those political pissants you have in your home state before calling my Gov an idiot.
I'd be all for impeaching Perry if we can find a cause.
Okay. People should never have sex.
I'm not sure we have the option of recall. Besides, he's just being a jerk, he hasn't run the state into the ground like Graem Davis did.
Oh how simple....how easy.
The truth.....Once something like this is mandated, it becomes very difficult to 'opt out'...
..and swiftly you will find your doctors, especially pediatricians not accepting your baby or child as a patient if you don't comply with the mandate.
It has happened in our county, and we're in Florida.
And my daughter was told this in the hospital before she took her baby home.....as they were trying to strongarm her in allowing HepB for a baby born 2 months premature.
She said 'No!' and held out as long as she could.
.......... Many parents are probably in denial that there 6th grader would engage in such activity
so the state can mandate that all children are to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease ?
why don't they also demand norplant at the same time so as to prevent teenaged pregnancy ?
There were 4 people runnig for governor. Perry won by 39%. He does not have a mandate to do much of anything. He was a Democrat and turned Republican.
well said
The chance of getting Hep B from someone else's saliva, unless you it goes into a wound in your body like from a bite, are extremely rare.
So if a child has bitten his lip and the wound is open and then he drinks from someone else's cup and the rim of that cup is seriously well-slobbered, there is a small chance he could get Hep B.
But that's pretty rare. Why should parents be forced to immunize their kids against such a relatively unlikely event? And foot the bill for the immunization of other children? Why don't I just tell my children not to share drinks with other kids?
..and whether they say that now....just a little ways down the road, you won't get your child in that school without the vaccine.
I think the wart goes away, but I'm not sure the virus ever does, much like Chicken Pox can come back as Shingles many years later after living in the nerve sheathing the whole time.
I've also heard that as many as 25% of the pop. may be carriers. You will never legislate cancer out of existence.
yeah, this opt out has to be notarized, filed with the State, and repeated every two years.
Name them.
If you get gardasil, you may THINK you are safe from HPV, and therefore will NOT go for frequent testing if you are sleeping around.
That is my point. Whether you get one yearly as prescribed, that will not prevent you from spreading other strains of HPV, or contacting other cancer causing strains.
The FACT that gardasil is being touted about as THE cure for HPV, is misleading. Women are NOT being told that this product does NOT prevent HPV in all it's forms, not even a majority of them. Only 2 cancer strains and 2 wart strains.
This FACT bring into question it's usefullness, and WHY this non- effective drug is being forced quietly through without discussion as a MANDATORY vaccination at TAXPAYERS expense.Also, it removes liability from the drug manufacturer and places it on the public. Smooth move from the makers of VIOX.
Take it if you want. But pay for it YOURSELF.
Based on what I read on WebMD, Hep B is very contagious. On what do you base your claims that it is an unlikely event?
THere is no simple opt out!
When HepB was introduced to our county 15 or so years ago, my pediatrician 'suggested' I allow our two children to get it.
I had the choice to say...'No'.
Sometime in the intervening years, it became mandatory...and pediatricians in this county....even when a baby is still in the hospital having just been born....will not accept the child as a patient unless he/she comply with the vaccine rules....including HepB.
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