June 12, 2006

Case In Point

The Republican Footprint

by Chris Honore’

Viewing the damage done to our country by the current administration gives new meaning to the phrase, “Time is of the essence.” The elections can’t come soon enough. And it isn’t just Iraq. This administration’s ideological footprint is now found throughout government and it should give all Americans pause.

Here’s but one example. And it’s remarkable.

According to an article in the March 13 issue of the New Yorker, Michael Specter writes that last December, Merck & Company applied to the F.D.A for a license to sell Gardasil, a vaccine that it has developed to protect women against human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S.

More than half of all Americans (some estimate 80 percent), according to Specter, become infected at some point in their lives. This virus is the primary cause of cervical cancer, which strikes 14,000 American women yearly and kills nearly 5,000, as well as afflicting hundreds of thousands more in the developing world.

Merck’s vaccine, designed to protect against HPV, has been tested in 13 countries, including the U.S. The results, Specter reports, were excellent: the women who were vaccinated did not develop those abnormalities associated with cancer or other illnesses. This cancer vaccine is a rare and unqualified success. Nobel laureate David Baltimore, commenting on the vaccine, said, “We should be proud and excited. It has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Gardasil was just approved by the F.D.A. for use in the U.S. However, even with this approval, what happens next will depend in great part on the administration’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Though its recommendations are not binding, most states rely on them to decide which vaccines a child must receive before going to public school.

Young girls would have to receive the HPV vaccine well before becoming sexually active, ideally before the age of 12. The question is, should the vaccine be required for school attendance, much likeshots for measles, chicken pox and mumps?

As it turns out, the Bush Administration and its Christian conservative supporters, such as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, are expected to lobby the ACIP heavily against making the HPV vaccine mandatory for all school age children. They are also discouraging its use across the board. Instead, as Specter states in his article, “They prefer to rely on education programs that promote abstinence from sexual activity and see the HPV vaccine as a threat to that policy.”

Leslee J. Unruh, the founder and president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, is quoted as saying, “Let’s not encourage (premarital sex) by vaccinating 10-year olds so they think they’re safe.” Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said, “Studies have indicated for years that promiscuity was associated with cervical cancer.”

Though the White House did not comment on the vaccine while it has been under F.D.A. review, Specter points out that this administration has been “relentless in [its] opposition to any drug, vaccine, or initiative that could be interpreted as lessening the risks associated with premarital sex.” As well, the White House has made every effort to diminish the use of condoms in the U.S. and throughout the world, including Africa where AIDs leveling one generation after the next.

Religious conservatives oppose any mass use of HPV vaccine or any emergency contraception, such as the “Plan B” pill, which can be taken shortly after having unplanned sex and thereby eliminate the need for an abortion. The vaccine and contraceptive will, they say, encourage young adolescents to engage in promiscuous sexual behavior.

Some on the right would even oppose an HIV vaccine on the same grounds, believing that it would diminish risk and therefore encourage promiscuity. Think of it: the more lethal the STD the better, for, in their view, high risk acts as a deterrent.

In place of contraceptives or life saving vaccines, the Holy Grail of sexual behavior for this administration is abstinence. Federal support for abstinence education in schools (in lieu of comprehensive sex education) has increased during the Bush presidency from $80 million in 2001 to $204 million in the 2007 budget.

This position flies in the face of studies showing disappointing results from abstinence programs, and ignores data that says a majority of adolescents are sexually active by their mid-teens. The meta-message of popular culture is certainly not abstinence.

What is clear is that the position of the White House and conservative, evangelical groups regarding the HPV vaccine and contraceptives is based solely on religion and not science. It is the wish of these groups to impose their views on government policy that should be based on science, not socio-religious values or beliefs. Those beliefs should have no place in the consideration of vaccines such as HPV or Plan B, or whether school children should be vaccinated. Yet they do.

Chris Honore is a free-lance writer living in Ashland.