Religious conservatives play their trump card

IT IS not surprising that Fr Eamonn McCarthy of Coachford in Co Cork is unhappy about the HPV vaccine (‘Priest urges chastity instead of cervical cancer jab’, August 31).

Religious conservatives have lost the argument against condoms due to their success in preventing sexually transmitted infections.

The fact that the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) still exists and may not be prevented through condom use is their trump card in trying to scare young people away from sex and undermining condom use – why bother when you could get HPV anyway?

The arrival of a vaccination against HPV presents a new challenge to religious conservatives; they must now persuade parents the vaccine will turn their daughters into wanton sluts and harlots or that they will have an adverse reaction to it – and furthermore that sex today is worse than cancer tomorrow.

What Fr McCarthy and other conservatives like to forget is that giving this vaccine to young girls is no indication that they are having sex, or are about to do so soon – all it means is they won’t get HPV-related cervical cancer.

Findings by University of Manchester researchers published in the British Journal of Cancer (2009) demonstrated that 79% of girls receiving the vaccine said it actually reminded them of the risks of sexual contact and 93% said it showed they were serious about their own health – demonstrating its sexual health benefits.

The HPV vaccine is not a silver bullet for cervical cancer.

Its provision should be part of a more comprehensive approach to help protect women from all sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy and HIV.

Comprehensive sex education, routine smear tests and promotion of consistent condom use are part of the answer – moralistic and outdated judgments such as those from Fr McCarthy are not.

Stephanie Lord

The Avenue

Highlands

Drogheda

Co Louth