My wife was kind enough to call my attention to a 2005 column in the Nation by Katha Pollit entitled “Virginity or Death.” She makes a compelling argument that what many conservative Christians are interested in is, not so much preventing abortion, but in keeping sex tied to reproduction and disease to make women afraid of sex.
A primary exhibit in this argument is the baffling opposition to the HPV vaccine. Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have developed vaccines that protect against the human papilloma virus, generally recognized as a sexually transmitted disease resulting in genital warts. However, its more serious consequences is as a leading cause of cervical cancer which is diagnosed in 10,000 women per year and kills 4,000.
So, vaccinate girls and get rid of cervical cancer. A no brainer, right? Well, not according to the Family Research Council:
“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.
“Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex,” Maher claims, though it is arguable how many young women have even heard of the virus.
While HPV might not be a reason that girls are avoiding sex, it provides a pretext for the New Puritans to oppose condom education in schools since HPV is not preventable by condoms. “Why bother, you could just get HPV anyway.”
Ms. Pollit puts it this way:
Christian conservatives have a special reason to be less than thrilled about the HPV vaccine. Although not as famous as chlamydia or herpes, HPV has the distinction of not being preventable by condoms. It’s Exhibit A in those gory high school slide shows that try to scare kids away from sex, and it is also useful for undermining the case for rubbers generally–why bother when you could get HPV anyway? In 2000, Congressman (now Senator) Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who used to give gruesome lectures on HPV for young Congressional aides, even used HPV to propose warning labels on condoms. With HPV potentially eliminated, the antisex brigade will lose a card it has regarded as a trump unless it can persuade parents that vaccinating their daughters will turn them into tramps, and that sex today is worse than cancer tomorrow.
Ms. Pollit goes on to argue that this mentality goes along with the right wing opposition to reducing abortions by making birth control more widely available; they want to make it less available and to make abstinence the only viable option for avoiding pregnancy or disease.
While I’m sure actual reasons vary for the various stances of politically active New Puritans on restricting availability of birth control and medicines to prevent STDs, as a whole the stances seem to make the most sense if one views sex as evil and views disease and pregnancy as God’s punishment for promiscuity.
Doug–there’s a real double-standard in general as to how the public is reacting to the HPV link to cervical cancer and the accompanying deadly results for women. There are far more people infected with HPV than HIV, and many of the people carrying it know it and still callously spread it to other persons. Yet, you don’t hear any calls for mandatory testing and reporting of individuals who test positive to public health authorities, or any attempts to enact legislation making it a crime to knowingly infect another person with HPV. Why to you think that is?
A couple of weeks ago I did some google searches on the Gardasil vaccine and HPV.
The new vaccine Gardasil protects against both cancer causing HPV viruses 16 and 18 and those that simplely cause genital warts. Right now it looks like HPV 16 and 18 are not linked to prostate cancer in men but further studies are still being conducted. It is simply harder to detect HPV invections in men.
It should also be mentioned that is is at least possible that some HPV invections could be spread non-sexually.
Last there is good reason to believe that genital wart causing HPV invections may be linked to Erectile Disfunction and other male urinary track problems.
Because Doug, as your wife has probably already told you, the minute they prove a link between HPVs and ED or prostate troubles not to mention cancer, they will not just be recommending boys get vaccinated they will be giving Gardasil away for free. Right now the full Garadisil treatment is expected to cost $300+ dollars.
Anyway Gardasil will simply be the first of a long line of vaccines to come intended to prevent cancer through vaccination. Already a vaccine against Hepatisis B is being considered for recommendation because of cancer risks. Hep B is often sexually transmitted.
Personally I think the Religious Right is less puritanical or obsessed with morality, but more simply a patriarchal/penis worshiping cult.
Re: HPV & HIV, I’d say ignorance accounts for most of the distinction. I really only know what I’ve heard and read over the past few months as my wife has become interested in the resistance to vaccination.
Doug,
One more thing. Don’t let the wife anywhere near the TV when Right-Wing fundy waterboy Congresscritter Mark Souder Fort Wayne is holding FDA/HHS oversight hearings on CSPAN concerning HPV Vaccines, Abstinance Education, Plan B birth control, medical marijuana, marijuana vs methamphetamine drug enforcement, not student aid for pot smokers…..
Worst of all Souder lets the foaming at the mouth wing-nuts on his sub-committee like crazy Jean Schmidt run wild.
Souder is a major idiot if not a national embarrassment. I really wish there was some way Souder could be defeated. It is not going to happen unless the Democratic leadership seriously tries to reach out to unmarried female voters, a huge untapped Democratic voting block. Seriously unless morons like Souder are be prime targets for serious attention by Democrats, I believe nationally millions of female voters will simply stay home on election day.
The good news is after a long fight the scientists are winning this battle. The HPV vaccine has been approved by a CDC panel and I don’t think there’s much that can stop it at this point. In fact, I’d say it was a small vocal loony-right fringe that was causing the problems all along.
Next on the list is the OTC status of the Plan B medication. The head of the FDA (Dr Hager), a man who was divorced from his wife after she alleged that he repeatedly anally raped her against her will, has indefinitely suspended any decision on the matter. He did this despite the FDA’s own advisory board recommending it for OTC status.
These far-right factions are never for contraception that could prevent abortions or save lives whether it’s birth control pills or condoms (even for married couples). These people are purely anti-sex, especially as it pertains to the sexuality of women…
I get insanely angry when anyone argues the point NOT to vaccinate girls for this. It’s not a common cold. It’s not the flu. IT’S CANCER. If we can stop cancer, we stop it. Period. End of story. Any parent who doesn’t get their daughter this vaccine can save their “I told you so” for after their child is dead from a long, painful battle with cervical cancer.
It is absolutely unconscionable for anyone to fight this vaccine. There isn’t one single even somewhat reasonable argument against it.
The Nation article is a very good read.
Yes Amy,
And there are millions and millions of women just like you. Millions of women who in opinion polls say they support liberal/Democratic policies or at least oppose Right-wing/Republican ones, who however turn out to vote in far lower than need be rates.
However, the Democratic leadership would rather pander to the more conservative and mythical swing-voters and triangulate away all credibility, then motivate millions of female voters.
14 years ago I was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and at the time my doctor said that they were thinking it was an HPV-caused disease but no one was for sure. I was very fortunate to have excellent healthcare and health insurance (two closely related concepts), had a hysterectomy and was done with it. My roommate at the IU Med Center was not so lucky. For some reason she not been diagnosed early (she was a lower-income woman from Southern Indiana…I made some assumptions about lack of access but I truly don’t know). Rather than surgery, a week in the hospital and then home for recovery, she was in the hospital one week every month or so for inpatient chemotherapy. She was a very sweet woman, and I remember how kind she and her husband were to me (I was in my 20’s). Her husband showed my mom where the ice machine was, etc., as he was (unfortunately) very familiar with the hospital. My roommate was one very sick woman, and no matter how unpleasant things were for me after surgery I knew I had no complaints. I have often thought about her as various anniversaries of my experience have rolled around, as I don’t know that she made it five years.
So now they have a vaccine that can prevent this, at least they can prevent a lot of it, and somebody thinks it’s a bad idea? I wish I had my roommate’s husband’s phone number; I’d have them give him a call.
Response to Gary Welsh: From the CDC website: Over 50% of sexually active people have had or will have HPV infection at some point in their lives. It should be noted that there are over 100 different strains of HPV and most don’t have any known effect. Only a few strains cause warts or cervical cancer. So if you have sex, your chance of that partner having been exposed to HPV is, say, 50%. If you have two partners, you’re down to one in four that neither of your partners has been exposed. That’s why no one is advocating testing and sexual quarantines of carriers. HPV is part of the sexual landscape currently. It is ubiquitous. We have an opportunity to prevent the most harmful strains. There can’t be any credible reason not to offer this vaccine. That is, unless a vocal minority thinks that sex is inherently dirty and would like sexually active people to have lesions that can offer visible testimony about our morally depraved lifestyles.
Having been raised a sort of rw fundamentalist myself I would say the honest thinking here is that immoral behavior( always sexual) is its own punishment and no one need intervene.But that said, this philosphy doesnt exclude intervention by influence or wealth,which God approves of, because it’s only through Gods grace that anyone ‘honest’ is rich…something about ‘helping yourself’..And conversely if you cant afford health insurance or work for low salaries,it must be your own fault and lack of initiative.
We can’t discuss anything with these people( except to agree),but many of them are well-intentioned and do good deeds.And they were no problem as long as they werent calling the shots in government.Democracy and Constitutional goverment based on precedents of LAW are their biggest deterrent( and fear).If the country at large survives these people,it will be because of our Constitution and our cultural traditions and our system of Law and Order.And we americans have always had a sense of decency and believe in fairplay.
God bless those of us who come from fundamentalist families from which we have escaped and have been able to keep on good terms with!
And reading legal and social commentary in this blog is very encouraging,and always a positive experience.
The vaccine is a great step forward – but as long as HPV is already as widespread as TB reports, PLEASE make sure that you or the women in your life get annual pap tests. Early detection saved my life. By the time cervical cancer is symptomatic it is very far advanced, but the pap test is allows the disease to be caught in time for most women. The vaccine discussion is very positive for the next generation, but in the meantime, don’t miss that annual exam.
I’m willing to bet that the wingnuts will fight this, but they’ll get their daughters vaccinated while no one is watching.
Let’s pretend that those that oppose this can actually KNOW that their girls will not choose to have sex before marrage, and then only to a man who has also been pure.
Do they really think that besides the fiction above that they can prevent their child from EVER being raped? Be it forced or done by drugs or alcohol, there are too many unknowns that go beyond trusting your children.
Their logic would make me laugh if it wasn’t so damaging. I’m sure there are scores of innocent girls out their who tell their boyfriend “No” JUST BECAUSE they might get HPV. If only they could be assured that they won’t get HPV, then they could engage in sex without fear!
I totally understand. Once I got a car with Anti-Lock brakes and an airbag, I went 15-30 mph over the speedlimit overnight! We should ban these devices because they give drivers a false sense of security…
Jason,
I taught teens for 35 years and sex in those yrs comes form NOWHERE and its done,and the consequences are there to handle if there are any.. lets not be logical about sex.
Reminds me of the findings of studies about those “abstinence pledges” that the “good girls” (presumably the ones who wouldn’t need the new vaccine) take that they won’t have sex until marriage. Seems the findings were that they had sex just as much as their non-pledging peers. Other studies have suggested some increases in riskier sex such as anal sex in those taking the pledges.
Also, cervical changes associated with HPV can wax and wane, as can the more visible genital warts. You can be several years into a marriage and have warts pop up as a reemergence of an infection from years earlier (perhaps unnoticed at that time). So how exactly would the righteous figure out who should have this vaccine and who shouldn’t? It’s just easier to vaccinate everyone. Just like the Hepatitis B vaccine. Hepatitis B is contracted through blood or sexual contact with an infected person (thru IV drug use, sexual contact, or previously from infected blood products). And yet we vaccinate newborns against Hep B. Why? Not because the infants are having promiscuous sex or IV drug use. We vaccinate at that age because they’re captive. We can get it out of the way then rather than trying to vaccinate only high-risk groups later (as they are also less likely to have routine medical care). By vaccinating all, the burden to society is less. To me, there is no logical difference between Hep B vaccination and HPV vaccination. It appears the only difference is the HPV’s only mode of transmission is sexual contact.
Abstinence from sex is a very good plan A for teenage behavior, but plan B shouldnt be ‘too bad, you lose, ruined for life and then you go to HELL.’
About 1/3 of Puritan women gave birth less than nine months after marriage. ’nuff said.
The first thing that comes to my mind in answer to the question of why it is not required that HPV be reported as is done re: HIV is that MEN DON’T DIE OF CERVICAL CANCER!
My Two Cents:
I do not agree that the HPV vaccine should be administered to young women, and it isn’t based on my religion or right wing political views. First of all the FDA has no idea how long the vaccine offers imunity, this could mean every few years having to start the regime all over again. They also have no idea what type of side effects and long-term damage the vaccine could cause. Last i am enraged that it is only young women who are being offered the vaccine. I understand that the effects of HPV on men are unknown but they can still be carriers and pass HPV onto their partners–causing them cancer. This is just one more thing for only women ot take on. When will society put some sexual responsibility on men.