catholicsphere

Have you seen this commercial advocating testing for HPV?

The problem is that they don’t let you know that HPV (human papillomavirus) is a sexually-transmitted disease. So, they are assuming that you are having sex. They don’t say that. They don’t make the connection.

Some states are planning to pass, or have passed, laws that require HPV screening in sixth grade girls. Except it is not only sexually active females that can get cancer from HPV; males can as well.

The message is vague and, in many cases, meaningless.

Check out the information at “MedlinePlus”, and be sure to check out the picture at the right of a what appears to be a mother and her (pre-?)teen daughter.

I’m sure there will be those who say … “At least this is opening a dialog between a woman and her doctor.” Perhaps … but here’s what the The National Cancer Institute has to say about HPV:

The surest way to eliminate risk for genital HPV infection is to refrain from any genital contact with another individual.

For those who choose to be sexually active, a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner is the strategy most likely to prevent genital HPV infection.

So, abstinence until marriage to a partner who has also abstained until marriage is the only guarantee. But, instead, we’ll promote a “vaccine” for HPV and tell you to use condoms so that you can foolishly think that you’re protected and you can just go on having sex with whomever, and whenever, you want.

It is not known how much protection condoms provide against HPV infection, because areas not covered by a condom can be infected by the virus.

Yet, for all this, I have read blogs (which I’d rather not link to) that say that I’m sticking my head in the sand. For that, they say, my kids should be taken away from me because I am not a fit parent, as I am putting their life in danger.

Keep in mind that these who say the vaccine should be required are the same folks that believe that abortion should be legal because of “a woman’s right to choose” and “keep your laws off my {daughter’s} body”. Go figure.

Even though there is not necessarily a causal relationship between having sex and getting the vaccine or passing out free condoms or birth control or sex “education”, it does present a mixed message. One that can be potentially dangerous.

But, here’s what they are expecting me to say (and what’s really being said): The only way to be 100% sure that you do not get a sexually transmitted disease or pregnant before marriage is to not have sex, and then to have sex only with your spouse whom you are sure has also done the same. But, in case you don’t do that, here’s all these things that are designed to keep you safe.

Now, anyone who can put together a logical thought would ask … “What do you mean ’safe’? You said that the only way to be safe is not to have sex outside of marriage to a partner you know has a ‘clean’ sexual history. So that means that doing otherwise is not ’safe’.”

Right? Right!

Apparently, though, there are a lot of people who can’t put together a logical thought because they think these things keep them “safe”. More likely is that they just choose to ignore that logic and take an “it won’t happen to me attitude.”

Lots of people are dying or have died from things like HIV/AIDS may have had the exact same thought.

The bottom line is that those of us who really want to protect our kids will give them the straight information, not mixed messages. Some will call that information “fear-mongering”, but often the truth can be scary; but it is truth nonetheless. And our kids will die without it.

[tags]hpv, vaccine, sex, std, catholicsphere, morality, pro-life, pro-choice[/tags]