CCF: HPV Vaccine Okay If Accompanied by Parental Consent, Sex Education
by Pat Centner
December 12, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a California-based pro-family organization, recently reported its support of a new vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) -- if certain conditions are met regarding the procedures to be followed when the vaccine is administered. A controversial bill now being debated in the California State Legislature will virtually mandate HPV vaccine shots for all girls entering sixth-grade. The issue has raised questions concerning cervical cancer, women's and children's health, risk avoidance, promiscuity, and other factors including government mandates and parental rights.
In a news release, CCF cited WebMD as saying that "the most common cause of cervical cancer is infection with a high-risk type of the human papillomavirus (HPV)." Other risk factors include smoking and using birth-control pills. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has continually maintained that the "surest way to eliminate the risk for future genital HPV infections is to refrain from any genital contact with another individual .... The available scientific evidence is not sufficient to recommend condoms as a primary prevention strategy for the prevention of genital HPV infection ..."
Thus, CCF says that it "supports the HPV vaccine if it is offered to minors with informed parental consent and an awareness that the vaccination does not provide complete protection against HPV or all of the strains that can lead to cervical cancer. This vaccination should be accompanied by a strong risk-avoidance message, since sexual abstinence is the only 100 percent effective way to avoid all sexually-transmitted infections."
Randy Thomasson, CCF president, adds, "A caring and sensitive policy would offer, not mandate, the HPV vaccine, and would include education on the risks of unmarried sexual contact ."
CCF states its support for an HPV vaccine policy published recently by The Medical Institute for Sexual Health, which -- among other things -- promotes abstinence for those who are not married and monogamy for those who are.
Pat Centner, an occasional contributor to AgapePress, is former staff writer for AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
