AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Bypassing the Legislature, Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

By issuing an executive order, Perry apparently sidesteps opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way parents raise their children.

Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade -- meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 -- will have to get Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV. (Vaccine meeting roadblocks nationally. )

Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.

"The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," Perry said in announcing the order.

"If there are diseases in our society that are going to cost us large amounts of money, it just makes good economic sense, not to mention the health and well-being of these individuals to have those vaccines available," he said.

Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

Perry has several ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.

Perry also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.

Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to the vaccine on religious or philosophical reasons. Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say such requirements interfere with parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children.

The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.

The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil -- at $360 for the three-shot regimen -- were made mandatory across the country

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/condi...cal.cancer.ap/

Bingo. By the way, this should be a choice, not a mandatory shot.

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"the height of arrogance is the height of control of those who create God in their own image"

No, I mean the way they talk about it being offered around the country in schools generating billions. Seems like they're expecting this to become mandatory.
But I'm guessing that this isn't currently offered by doctors if that's the case?

But yeah I didn't read the whole article at first.

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"the height of arrogance is the height of control of those who create God in their own image"

If the schools are paying for it, and if there is an option to opt out, then I fail to see the problem with this. Why is the vaccine "meeting roadblocks nationally" though?

I think it's the age group that many find shocking. When I got this vaccine last month, my doctor told me the study on it was done on 9 - 26 year olds, and therefore that was the age group on which insurance companies would pay.

Well, it's because they want to get people before they're sexually active. It's a fairly standard thing, and it's dumb because every time they do something like that, the age at which kids become sexually active seems to move accordingly. Everyone has bigger brothers and sisters, see?

But the intention is good, I think, even though some people will probably make a lot of money out of it.

I wonder if the age of consent will be dropped in the future.

Probably. But it hasn't yet, so...

tejas!? seriously?

i'd have thought california would be the first.
well here at my university in california, all female students can get the Guardisil vac. for free at the health centre.

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shocking isn't it?

All Australian women between 12 & 26 will be able to get it for free in a few months. It was going to be $400 or something, til all the female senators kicked upa a huge stink, and it got apprived by the PBS to be covered for those ages. But you have to pay if you're older.
They're looking at making it available for men as well, but I guess it's probably more urgent to get women done first.

I doubt it, if anything it will be raised to 21.

Somehow I doubt that. The trend seems to be continued sexualization of all aspects of life, at all ages, at all times. I find it kind of disturbing and half amusing.

Are you serious? They're arresting teens for having sex with each other, the laws are getting more anti-sex not looser.

The cervical cancer vaccines worry me. We seem to have only heard about them in the past few years and suddenly they're becoming compulsory. Perhaps I am just more sceptical because of MMR and all that (although I had that and I've never had any problems) but it does seem a little rushed.

I mistrust drugs companies immensely, and this does seem like a big money-spinner when some of them didn't do too well last year. I can't remember which, but it was the one that produced Seroxat and the patents on another of its big sellers was going to run out imminently...I don't know enough about it to know if this is produced by the same company though. I'm probably just being too paranoid...


I would have thought that in Texas people would be emphasising the worry that it'd make kids want to have sex earlier (which is obviously a load of rubbish, but it's the kind of argument you hear against this vaccine) so I am quite surprised it's been made compulsory here first.

The laws may not be relaxing, but they're not actually changing. It's probably a good thing in the long run, because it will draw people's attention to the law. When a light touch is used, a lot of the time people don't know what's legal and what isn't.

This is a CANCER PREVENTION method. Every girl should get it. I hate that all these people are getting into a tizzy about it being mandatory... It is also mandatory to vaccinate your child for measels, polio, etc before they can attend school. FUCK JUST DO IT, it can save lives.

it pisses me off that people weren't making this big of a deal when the government wouldn't allow this vaccination to be released...

the vaccine will be pretty much useless on anyone who has had sex.
therefore it must be given young.