I saw the headline on Google News and couldn't believe i was reading it correctly.

Which is the greater evil, cervical cancer or sluttish behaviour? US conservatives think they have an answer.

The religions nuts are at it again. Trying to dictate how, when, and why a woman has sex.

Cervical cancer kills 200,000 women worldwide every year. So one would think that a promising new vaccine that prevents HPV infection (the leading cause of cervical cancer) would be accepted with open arms and a sigh of relief.

But religious conservative groups in the US, who have their claws in the vaccine approval process, are less than excited. Why? Because being vaccinated against a potentially deadly disease could make girls slutty. Seriously.

This was sparked off by the consideration of making the this part of the mandatory vaccinations before entering public schools.

Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful," Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council told the British magazine New Scientist, "because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex.

That's right. The fear of cervical cancer is what makes women abstain from premarital sex. I always thought it was supposed to be fear of God that did that, but i guess it must be cervical cancer.

Leslie Unruh, of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, says: "If you don't want to suffer these diseases, you need to abstain ... I personally object to vaccinating children against a disease that is 100% percent preventable with proper sexual behaviour."

Got that? "Proper sexual behaviour". I love nothing more than people trying to dictate what's proper and what's not. What is it about women's sexuality that horrifies them so much? What is it that they're afraid of? Cause if they weren't stinking of fear, they wouldn't be working so hard to get control of my vagina.

You can get HPV from a toilet seat. So I guess peeing is slutty sexual behaviour.

Is getting a routine PAP smear leading to sluttiness? This is ridiculous. HPV transmission can be significantly minimized with, shockingly, condom usage, and it's even greater with the female condom. (though noone likes that) Most HPV transmission usually causes nothing or genital warts, and combined with PAP smears cervical cancer should be one of the least prevalent cancers.

I'm generally not supportive of laws which treat those under 18 as full adults (or anyone older than 18 as not full adults either). If we are going to define anyone under 18 as 'children' then that's how they should be treated by the government (that also includes trying minors as adults). perhaps we need a third legal age group that treats teenagers as a formal separate group with more rights than children and less than adults or lower the age. but the randomness of such laws bothers my ordered mind. you've seen my comic collection.

anyway, your right. Most kids greatest concern regarding sex is not getting caught. (actually, they're mainly concerned with _having_ sex). and eliminating 'abstinence only' policy's of sex ed, which, don't seem to work, is really the most realistic way to prevent STD's and pregnancies by advocating the virtually foolproof use of condoms.

I should've said 'sexual HPV transmission', because Roselyn is right in that HPV is very common, and can occur with any skin-skin contact.

and, they'll have to fight me for control of your vagina. I got it from Rod for some old comics.

i bet it was the Force Works issues.