There are dearly few issues I agree with Governor Perry of Texas, but, vaccinating young women in prevention of cervical cancer is prudent to a healthy America.
Do you how long women in this country have suffered with cervical cancer and the anticipation of 'POSITIVE' Pap Tests. This is a backward as a state legislature can be. The federal government needs to mandate HPV for school enrollment including Charter and Private Schools.
Perry's HPV vaccine order is rescinded (click on)
Web Posted: 02/21/2007 06:13 PM CST
Janet Elliott
Express-News Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - The House Public Health Committee today voted to rescind an executive order issued by Gov. Rick Perry requiring pre-teen girls to be vaccinated against a virus that causes cervical cancer.
The committee vote was 6-3. The bill now goes to the full House for consideration.
More than 90 House members signed on to House Bill 1098 by Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton. It would reverse Gov. Rick Perry's Feb. 2 order mandating that girls be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus before entering sixth-grade next year.
Bonnen introduced his bill shortly after Perry issued the order, and it is on a fast-track to the Senate, where similar legislation has been filed.
The committee heard six hours of sometimes emotional testimony Monday night about HPV, a sexually transmitted virus linked to most cervical cancers. Texas physicians and even some cervical cancer patients offered differing views on whether the vaccine should be required or simply encouraged for girls before they become sexually active.
The only vaccine approved for HPV is Merck's Gardasil. The pharmaceutical giant on Tuesday abandoned its lobbying push to get laws pass ed in states requiring the shots for school enrollment.
Company officials said they didn't want the widely publicized lobbying campaign to be a distraction in making the first-ever vaccine against cancer widely available.
Perry's order would make Texas the first state to mandate the shots. Parents could fill out a form to opt out their daughters.
Bonnen has said that he believes it would be better to improve access to health care so that women can get annual P ap smears to detect abnormal cells that could be an early indicator of cervical cancer.
``I don't see the urgency in mandating a vaccine that's in the infancy of this phenomenal new research and technology to protect our lives,'' Bonnen said.
Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, who has filed a bill to require the vaccine, said that Pap smears don't catch all of cervical cancers.
``The bottom line is the vaccine is going to protect young girls. This is something that incubates for 10 years,'' Farrar said.
Another bill, H ouse Bill 1397 by Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, would require the Texas Department of State Health Services to develop a public education plan about HPV. It also was passed by the committee on a 9-0 vote.
