Come September 2008, 11 and 12-year-old girls in Texas entering the sixth grade will receive three shots of the Gardasil vaccine used to prevent cervical cancer.Texas is the first state to require that young schoolgirls receive the cervical cancer vaccine, approved for use by the FDA in June and proven to protect against the most common strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) -- the cause of most cervical cases cervical cancers.
Texas governor Rick Perry (R), who just signed an executive order making this mandate official, believes the high cost of treating diseases and ensuring the health and well-being of our population justifies the vaccine requirement.
Perry, who has been met with opposition from those concerned that HPV vaccination of young girls promotes premarital sex and interferes with parental rights, will allow parents to opt out of the vaccination requirement with documentation citing religious or philosophical reasons. But he hopes most will comply with the cervical cancer vaccine he believes is no different than immunization against diseases such as polio.
Gardasil drugmaker Merck stands to make billions if the vaccine is made mandatory across the country. The series of three necessary shots cost $360.
Perry, who received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign, has other ties to the company. His former chief of staff is one of Merck's three lobbyists in Texas, and his current chief of staff's mother-in-law is state director for Women in Government -- a group active in introducing bills across the country that affect women.
I have kept this post in the pending file for two days because something inside me is deeply opposed to giving
these groups any more media attention or blog time than they manage to attract on their own. But, as a breast cancer
survivor, I have become aware of an emerging new twist in the agenda regarding the fight to overturn the legalization
of abortion that is so disturbing and offensive, I feel compelled to share the observation more than I feel compelled
to denying these groups attention. This post is not about abortion. This post is about a group using cancer in a veiled
attempt to further the political agenda for overturning the legalization of abortion -- in what appears to be an
anything goes tactic of justifying the means to achieve the ultimate goal. 
