A shot at good health

If things go well in the state legislature, Indiana could be a leader in women's health next year. \nState Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville, recently authored a bill that would require girls entering the sixth grade to receive a vaccine for HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer and genital warts, when they receive other standard vaccinations. The FDA approved the vaccine in June.\nThis bill is a shining example of a bipartisan effort -- all 13 female senators have signed on as co-sponsors, including six Republicans and seven Democrats -- but unfortunately it has been met with the usual share of opposition.\nMonica Boyer of the Indiana Voice for the Family wrote in a letter to the editor in the The (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star on Jan. 20 that the "vaccine misrepresents to young people that it protects them from all STDs." Because HPV can only be transmitted through sexual contact, she said, it is not a public health risk and therefore the government should not be involved.\nThe initial costs for the government to provide the vaccine might be high (the vaccine, Gardasil, currently runs at a little more than $350 per person), but those costs will pay off, considering about $2 billion is spent per year in the United States to treat cervical cancer. By distributing the vaccine en masse to all girls, the government can prevent the cancer from becoming a plague only among the poorer women who couldn't afford the vaccine when they were young. \nThis vaccine prevents only a few strains of HPV, four to be exact. A main criticism of the bill is that it might give girls free reign to have sex. However, there are certain facts that contradict this claim. For instance, girls who receive the vaccine will still be at risk for contracting other sexually transmitted diseases and infections and pregnancy, realities they should be made aware of when receiving the vaccine. The important point is that the vaccine will help prevent cervical cancer. More than 12,000 women were diagnosed with the disease and slightly fewer than 4,000 women died as a result in the U.S. in 2002. And if parents really insist they don't want their children protected (because their children, of course, are the ones practicing abstinence till marriage), they can choose to have their daughters opt out of the vaccination without fear of recourse. \nBut vaccinations are about prevention, not treatment. That's why it's important to reach girls before they become sexually active, whether that moment comes at age 15 or age 30. Getting a tetanus shot doesn't encourage people to walk around barefoot in construction zones, and being vaccinated for HPV shouldn't encourage girls to behave irresponsibly. \nThis is a common-sense bill, and the women of the Indiana Senate should be commended for banding together and acting so quickly on such an important matter. Now we must hope that the men of the legislature will do the same and vote yes on this proposal.