Does the HPV Vaccine Encourage Teens to Have Sex?

The Michigan State Senate passed a bill last year that would have required that all girls in the State of Michigan be immunized with the HPV vaccine before they enter the sixth grade. The HPV vaccine has been shown to be 100% effective at stopping the most common HPV virus strains that cause cervical cancer and genital warts. The HPV virus is spread via sexual intercourse and the vaccine needs to be administered prior to the patient coming in contact with the HPV virus. What this means is that the girl needs to be vaccinated before she becomes sexually active to ensure effectiveness.

Ultimately, the bill never became law, partly because of the uproar it caused within the ranks of the Religious Right masters of the Republican party. They don't want to give their daughters this vaccine because they believe it would encourage their pure, virginal daughters to have sex before they're married (*gasp* Scandalous!!).

These are the same people who wanted to stop Terri Schiavo's husband from removing the feeding tube from his brain-dead wife through Federal legislation. Does anyone see a contradiction here? Pull out all the stops to keep a brain-dead body alive, but condemn your daughters to sickness and death if they dare consider having sex out of wedlock. And they say the radical Muslims are barbaric in their treatment of women!!