The HPV Vaccine and the Religious Right

Two drug companies, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, have developed vaccines that are totally effective in preventing the most dangerous strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV), the cause of almost all cervical cancers. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in America. More than half of all Americans become infected by it at some point in their lives. Cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer among women worldwide and the leading cause of cancer death among women in the developing world. In order to be effective, the vaccine must be administered to girls in their preteen or early teen years before they become sexually active. Research and clinical trials have found the vaccine to be safe.

Each year 10,000 American women contract cervical cancer and 4000 women die from it. Most of these deaths could be prevented by vaccination. Vaccinations for a number of diseases, including measles and mumps, are required before a child can enter school. In a recent article in The New Yorker magazine, Michael Specter reports that the likelihood that children will receive vaccinations against HPV in the near future is in doubt because of the opposition of the “Christian Right.” Specter quotes Leslee J. Unruh, the founder and president of the “Abstinence Clearinghouse,” as saying, “I personally object to vaccinating children when they don’t need vaccinations, particularly against a disease that is one hundred percent preventable with proper sexual behavior.” Religious conservatives fear that such a vaccine would lead to “disinhibition,” a medical term for absence of fear. "Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful," Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council told the British magazine New Scientist, "because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex."

Today there appears to be a concerted effort by the Christian Right to discourage state governments from mandating the vaccine for young girls. Articles are appearing everywhere claiming that the vaccine is not necessarily effective and that the long-term effects are unknown.
A number of state legislatures have voted to prevent mandatory vaccination with the vaccine.

In the past, the Bush Administration opposed any drug, vaccine, or initiative that could be interpreted as lessening the risks associated with premarital sex. This includes opposition to programs that advocate the distribution of condoms and opposition to Plan-B, commonly known as the “morning-after pill.” The Bush Administration prefers to rely on education programs that promote abstinence from sexual activity.

Premarital abstinence from sex is certainly the best way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. Young people who engage in premarital sex take serious risks with their lives. There are many diseases besides HPV which threaten those who engage in unprotected sex. But studies show that no matter what the danger, young people are going to engage in sex. This is apparently true even of those who take the so-called “virginity pledge.” In one recent study, researchers found that about 50% of young people who took the virginity pledge did not remain virgins past the age of 17. Although virginity pledge programs helped some participants delay sex, 88% of those who took such pledge and had sex before the end of the study did so before marriage. The study also found that students who promised to remain virgins were less likely to use contraception and were less likely to seek STD testing when they did have sex. The conclusion of the researchers was that the pledge did not reduce pregnancy or STD rates for adolescents.

The thinking behind the development of a vaccine for HPV was not to encourage young people to have premarital sex. It was to save lives. It was to lessen the danger to young women who would be having sex even if there were no such vaccine. People of the Christian Right, who have arrogated to themselves the title of “Right to Life,” would rather let young women die than have them enjoy the pleasure of making love outside of marriage. As Katha Pollitt said in The Nation, “What is it with these right-wing Christians? Faced with a choice between sex and death, they choose death every time.”

It almost seems that the Christian Right actually wants young women to suffer and die for having sex outside of marriage, just as they want gay people to die from AIDS. It is as if they consider cancer and death to be just retribution by an angry God against those who have violated his moral laws. They are like the people of Salem who burned the bodies of living women in the belief that they were witches. I am convinced that as a group they are sexually repressed, like the radical Muslims who bombed the World Trade Center on 9/11. When they pressure state governments to limit the availability of a life-saving vaccine, it is not moral; it is evil.