Religious Right seeks to stop STD vaccine: Killing to make a point

Rebecca Traister writes in Salon.com that the Family Research Council believes “giving the [human papilloma virus] vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex.” She cites an article in New Scientist where Debora MacKenzie explains:

In the US, for instance, religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 per cent of parents favour vaccinating their daughters. “Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV,” says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, a leading Christian lobby group that has made much of the fact that, because it can spread by skin contact, condoms are not as effective against HPV as they are against other viruses such as HIV.

This virus is the leading cause of cervical cancer, deaths from which “could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries.” So much for “right to life.”

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