Merck, maker of the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, is backing off its lobbying campaign following pressure from medical groups and parents who believe the vaccine should not be mandated as a school attendance requirement for adolescent girls.

The public outcry that caused Merck to announce its stop order on Tuesday stems from the fact that the vaccine protects against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. School-mandated vaccines are typically for diseases spread through casual contact, such as measles and mumps.

Merck's medical director for vaccines, Dr. Richard M. Haupt says, "We're concerned that our role in supporting school requirements is a distraction from that goal, and as such have suspended our lobbying efforts," adding that the company will continue providing information about the vaccine upon request.

Gardasil, launched in June and the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, has inspired controversy since day one. There's the cost -- $360 for three required shots -- and all sorts of insurance concerns and conservative groups who worry the vaccine encourages premarital sex and interferes with parental rights. Even those in support of the vaccine -- like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Practitioners -- question Merck's quick push to market this drug, especially in light of the company's withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.

"I believe that their timing was a little bit premature so soon after (Gardasil's) release, before we have a picture of whether there are going to be any untoward side effects," says Dr. Anne Francis, who chairs an American Academy of Pediatrics committee.

Legislatures in 20 states have taken steps to mandate the vaccine for young girls. And with the exception of Texas governor Rick Perry's February 2 executive order requiring Texas girls entering the sixth grade in 2008 get vaccinated, nothing has been made official so far.

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.

A new year. A new law. Effective today, smokers are banned from lighting up in most public places in Washington DC .

Restaurants, bars, and indoor workplaces are now considered smoke-free in the District. The new law takes full effect today -- January 2, 2007.

More than half of the nation's population now lives in areas where smoking is banned in public places, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation.

In 2006 alone, nine statewide bans were adopted by lawmakers. In total, 22 states have passed smoking bans. And 16 states have passed laws banning smoking in bars.

In addition to Washington DC, smoking bans also go into effect today in Bloomington and Normal, Illinois.

Singer and songwriter Jewel sat down with ABC News This Week's George Stephanopoulos to discuss her support of a bill that will allow women to stay in the hospital at least 48 hours after a mastectomy. Called drive-thru mastectomies, the current practice of discharging women hours after surgery does not allow women sufficient time to heal before being released from the hospital.

During the interview Jewel placed the blame on insurance companies and HMOs who have decided that a mastectomy is not major surgery but an outpatient procedure. You have got to be kidding me, what an absurdity.

As Jewel stated, "This certainly isn't a merely feminist issue. This is about the care of our loved ones."

I don't see it as much a feminist issue as simply a matter of compassionate, and in this case, safe health care of mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters. The obnoxious practice of bean counters to decide that any major surgery is an outpatient procedure to save on health care expenses has been going on far too long.

Jewel will travel to Washington to help deliver 12 million signatures to Congress to support a health care bill that requires insurance companies and HMOs to cover the cost of proper care for women undergoing mastectomy. The VOICES: Jewel Lobbies for Breast Cancer Bill interview is available as video for viewing online.

By virtue of his profession as a cancer research specialist, Joseph Harris, 26, a doctor of molecular biology, faced a moral dilemma and his solution found him guilty of breaking the law.

Harris, convicted under the Serious and Organized Crime Act, will be spending the next three years in jail. The Times Online, in Brilliant cancer scientist had double life as animal rights sab, features the clandestine life of Harris, whose work in discovering treatments and potential cures for gastro-intestinal and pancreatic cancers collided with his compassion as an animal rights activist and his passion for a girlfriend who dumped him because she disapproved of where his research would eventually lead -- to animal testing.

Harris pleaded guilty to causing damage to the premises of three companies connected to animal testing, and painting ALF (Animal Liberation Front) on walls, windows and vans belonging to the companies. He got caught in the act at the third facility.

When the Northampton Crown Court judge spoke to Harris he said, "I am sorry that your conviction and the sentence I impose will seriously damage what was a very promising career. It causes me great discomfort in seeing you before the court having thrown so much away."

Harris claimed he found information about the animal abuse at the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty website.

It is a well-known research-based fact that women who breastfeed have a decreased risk for developing breast and ovarian cancer. Which makes the story of Victoria's Secret nebulous breastfeeding policy and the unfortunate experience of a breastfeeding mother from Wisconsin relevant.

Rebecca Cook was shopping with a friend at a Victoria's Secret store last week when she asked if she could use a dressing room to breastfeed her baby. The store clerk told her no and led Cook and her infant to an employee restroom. Cook says when the clerk opened the bathroom door, the inside of the bathroom was disgusting. At that, Cook told the clerk "No, I don't eat in the bathroom and my daughter doesn't eat in the bathroom."  According to Cook, the stork clerk told her that using the dressing rooms for the purpose of breastfeeding would be unsanitary because people change in them.

Cook, with other nursing mothers, staged a breastfeeding sit-in protest outside the Victoria's Secret store. They believe that a company that has made their fortune from breasts is discriminating against nursing mothers. In addition to the protest in Wisconsin, similar protests were held in front of Victoria's Secret stores in several states by nursing mothers who have been denied the right to breastfeed in a public place.

Breastfeeding being unsanitary is absurd and I have to question the attitude and motive of the sales clerk who handled Cook's request for a dressing room, or even just a place to sit in the back of the dressing room hallway, by leading her to an unclean employee restroom as the only place to breastfeed her infant. Victoria's Secret needs to make it abundantly clear they support nursing mothers who shop in their stores. If breastfeeding is a health benefit for the mother in cancer prevention, and she chooses to breastfeed her baby for the many benefits to her baby's health and her own, is she supposed to stay home for a solid year or more until she is done breastfeeding? What do you think?   

Some employers are understanding while others are not so accommodating when it comes to an employee's need for a more flexible schedule or time off from work while they undergo the rigors of chemotherapy, surgeries and other cancer treatments. According to the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School, cancer can be considered a disability, and cancer patients treated unfairly have remedies through laws that protect the disabled.

"In fact, people with cancer face a lot of employment discrimination," states Eve Hill of the Disability Rights Legal Center. Barbara Schwerin, who heads the Cancer Legal Resource Center, estimates they get about 300 calls from cancer patients each month. Because of the extreme fatigue, and other disabling side effects a cancer patient can suffer from cancer surgeries and treatments, patients often worry if they will lose their job in the process. Schwerin reassures them that they often have legal rights that will protect them from less understanding employers. Really, the last thing a cancer patient needs to worry about -- while they are fighting to stay alive and survive cancer -- is whether they will have a job or a roof over their heads and food in the pantry.

Abraham Starchild Cherrix was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma last summer and went through three months of chemotherapy. Early this year, tests showed the chemotherapy had not achieved the goal of cancer remission and his doctors recommended more chemotherapy and radiation. Since being diagnosed with cancer, Cherrix has done his research, and when the doctors told him they would like him to undergo additional chemotherapy and radiation, he said thanks but no thanks. He has lost faith in conventional medicine to help him, and he is concerned about the poisonous damage chemotherapy and radiation will do to his body. He is not alone.

Cherrix wants to try alternative therapies now to combat a cancer that chemotherapy has failed to defeat. He is interested in a bible-based diet, and the Hoxsey formula involving herbs and nutrition. He has contacted the Association for Research and Enlightenment, a center founded by Christian psychic Edgar Cayce and a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. Like I said, he is not alone. The interest and use of alternative therapies is a choice some cancer patients make to treat their cancer. Ultimately it is up to the cancer patient how the cancer is treated. So what is the big deal that Cherrix has chosen this route? He is 15 years-old. So when he made his intentions clear, with the support of his parents, child services and the court stepped in and legally ordered him to begin chemotherapy and radiation. His parents have been threatened with losing custody of their son.

It's a tough call. There is a cancer patient who does not believe in a treatment he is being forced to undergo -- and having faith in your doctors and treatment can affect how well a treatment works -- and life and death decisions and courses of action that often do not come with a second chance. If Cherrix were an adult, none of this would be a legal issue. Do you think the courts have a right to intervene?

Breast cancer and chemotherapy
Took away her crown and glory
She promised God if she was to survive
She would enjoy everyday of her life ...
On national television
Her diamond eyes are sparkling
Bald headed like a full moon shining
Singing out to the whole wide world like HEY ...

I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations no no
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am a soul that lives within ...

On May 16, 12-time Grammy-nominated India.Arie released a new single I Am Not My Hair as a music video and as a single from the new album, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, set for release on June 27. I heard about the new song from Priscilla's Bouncing for Boobs blog, and in chat among other breast cancer survivors. Verse three of the lyrics are specific to a woman's breast cancer experience of hair loss and chemotherapy. As usual, with inspirational independence, inner strength, an ability to see the world more clearly than most and the creative ability to express that clarity with soul, wisdom and tender truth, I predict this song will touch a deep cord within the breast cancer survivor community.

The American Cancer Society, ACS, Cancer Action Network, CAN, has issued a Save Our Mammograms and Cancer Screenings action alert for concerned citizens concerning legislation S.1955 designed to undermine important patient protections and hamper efforts to prevent, detect and treat cancer. State laws that ensure cancer screenings protections will be threatened. According to the ACS, this bill would eliminate all of the progress made in the states that guarantee access to mammograms, colon cancer screening, pap smears, clinical trial participation, off-label drug use and other cancer screenings and treatments. The ACS is asking Americans to stand up to protect these vital cancer screenings. ACS has provided an easy-to-use online form that allows citizens to contact U.S. Senators and voice opposition to this legislation. It is an election year. They just might pay a little more attention to what the voters have to say right now. Go here to speak up and have your opinion count.

Thank to Keri of 500 Miles 2 Nowhere for this blog lead!

So, Katie Couric is moving to CBS, and Meredith Viera, one of the ABC co-hosts of The View, accepted an offer to replace Couric at NBC. Which left Viera's job at ABC open. Who did Barbara Walters choose as the new co-host? Rosie O'Donnell. What are Walters and ABC thinking? Jerry Springer ratings steeped in controversy is all I can figure out.

Once upon a time, I was a Rosie O'Donnell fan. As a comedian, I thought she was funny. As an advocate for children, I thought she was generous. But she cancelled all that out the day she allegedly told one of her staff, who was battling breast cancer, that "liars get cancer," because apparently, O'Donnell was feeling even more mean-spirited than usual that day. To be accurate, during a lawsuit Rosie magazine publishers filed against O'Donnell for breach of contract -- Cindy Spengler -- who was head of marketing at Rosie magazine, testified that O'Donnell made the remark after a meeting to discuss the magazine's problems. Spengler said O'Donnell told her that her silence in the meeting was tantamount to lying. "You know what happens to people who lie," the witness tearfully quoted O'Donnell as saying. "They get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again.

Before that, I do not think the larger audience had any idea O'Donnell harbored such dark spite in her heart. The statement, while obviously appalling and unforgivable, is also stupefying considering O'Donnell -- at the age of 10 -- lost her mother to breast cancer. But no matter now, as to the why of it all. You can't unring a bell. I am not a huge daytime television viewer, but come September, you can rest assured, no one at my house will be channel surfing ABC. People has the bland noncommittal announcement of The View's choice for new co-host. The Boston Herald has a snarkier version of the story. As a breast cancer survivor, now you have mine. 

In 1994, the first Million Paws Walk was held to benefit the RSPCA of Queensland, Australia. Dr Cam Day, veterinarian, felt a special event involving animals of all types walking together would provide a fun day for pets and their owners and raise much needed funds for the RSPCA. In the first event, five hundred people took their dogs and cats for a stroll around suburban streets, raising almost $10,000 dollars for RSPCA's disadvantaged animals. Participation in the fundraising event has grown each year, with the most interesting entrant to the Million Paws Walk being a sheep raised in suburbia who thought it was a dog.

RSPCA Australia, who works so that animals are treated with the compassion and consideration they deserve, is a non-profit, non-government charity, dedicated to animal welfare and responsible for implementing state animal protection laws. The RSPCA holds the belief that an animal's welfare should be considered in terms of five freedoms: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury or disease; freedom to express normal behavior; and freedom from fear and distress.

This year, one of the dogs who will be walking in the Milllion Paws Walk is 12-year-old Welsh Springer spaniel, Dylan, who is battling cancer. Bringing him to the walk will be his owner, Denise Mullins. If Dylan and Denise can show up to benefit disadvantaged pets, then the healthy younger dogs have no excuse, now do they. The challenge is on!
The Western Australia Million Paws Walk event takes place on Sunday, April 30 and then one more Million Paws Walk will take place on May 21, 2006. Visit the RSPCA website for locations and details.