There is a pretty big controversy occuring in Ontario’s schools right now. Elementary school girls are being encouraged by their local Health Unit to receive the vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV), a DNA-based virus that is responsible for about 80% of cervical cancer and 90% of genital warts.

To the logical mind, this seems like a no-brainer situation. If there is a vaccine that can prevent you from getting cervical cancer through the human papillomavirus, why would you not roll up your sleeve and tell the nurse to “stick you with the cure”. However, this is not the case.

The Catholic church (and followers) have found a reason to despise the HPV vaccine. In fact, they are taking aims to ensure that Catholics will prevent their daughters from getting the vaccine. Why? The same reason why Catholics dislike condoms, birth control pills, and the Hepatitis B vaccine; they believe that these awful creations of health care will encourage their children to engage in sexual activity.

In fact, many Catholics have gone so far as to make claims that the Health Unit is targeting girls at this young age because they expect these girls to be sexually active. The argument of those who oppose the vaccine can be summed up as follows:

“We trust our daughters. They would not have sex. Abstinence is the key.”

Of course, abstinence is all well and good. But it will not protect their daughters if the “groom-to-be” has been sexually active, and carries some precarious papilloma on his pecker. All of the girls who abstain from the vaccine cannot abstain from sex forever, and could still be at risk down the line. For whatever reason, it seems to be believed the God will protect them, or abstinence will keep them safe forever. However, this is not the case.

There have been some teachers who have voiced their dislike of the vaccine within their classrooms. Rumour has it (from a friend of a friend of a student) that one teacher at a local high school actually told her female students that the vaccine “will paralyse them” and that they are “being used as guinea pigs by pharmaceutical companies”. Reportedly, the numbers of the students from the class to get the vaccine were very low.

And to return to the argument that young girls are being targeted because they are likely to be sexually active, it is actually quite the opposite. In medical situations, treatment is not wasted on those who it would not benefit. A hospital will not give a healthy liver to an alcoholic, because his condition makes it likely that he will ruin it. In the same way, giving a dose of the HPV vaccine to women who are already sexually active would be pointless. Vaccinations are a preemptive measure, not an end-game solution.

It is for this reason that the health unit’s are offering this vaccine to young girls nearing the end of elementary school. It is assumed (and rightly so) that girls will not have become sexually active at this age. As a result, the vaccine can have more of a widespread effect and provide the greatest impact.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would prevent their daughters from getting this vaccine. Preserving the health of our children is extremely important. How can you deny them that protection? How can you deny them that preservation? And how could you ever look them in the eyes if they get HPV or cervical cancer and say “I’m sorry, but I thought what I did was for the best”?