Recently, Michele Bachmann let loose on Texas Gov. Rick Perry for signing a bill requiring all girls to be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine in order to attend public school.
Michele Bachmann doesn't like this because it takes away from the rights of the parents to choose. (Funny how she's all about "choice" on this particular issue, and not so much on others.) She went on to claim that one parent told her the vaccine was dangerous and caused mental retardation in her child. This has been hotly contested by medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. Parents in Texas can easily opt out of the requirement, but that's not really the point. The point is, why would any parent decide against protecting their daughter from a virus that has been shown to cause cervical cancer?
Here are three reasons why your daughter is not safe, no matter how you've raised her.
Someday, she will have sex.
I know, it is really difficult for a mom (and especially a dad) to admit. But it is true. If your daughter is a normal, healthy kid who will grow into a normal healthy adult-sex is probably inevitable. Whether it happens in the back seat of a Buick in high school or on silk sheets on her wedding night doesn't matter. What does matter is that she will be having sex with someone else. Your daughter may be chaste and innocent, but is her partner? Has her partner exercised due diligence, or did her partner have a past that she knows nothing about?
The "Unthinkable" could happen to her.
According to a study conducted by the National Organization for Women, more than 600 women are raped or sexually assaulted in the United States every day. Surviving a sexual assault is not an easy thing. If the aftereffects of that sexual assault are revisited years later because the perpetrator of the crime passed on a virus that causes her to contract cervical cancer, survival may not even be possible.
She might make her own mistakes.
Your daughter is cute and innocent right now. She might be playing with her dolls, or her brother's dump truck. Either way, the thought that she might someday fall into the company of the wrong kind of kids, experiment with drugs, alcohol and sex, or make any decision in her life that might not be in accordance with your morals or the way you are raising her-well, it's just not possible. Not right now.
But you have no idea what choices she might make in the long run. If she does ultimately fall into dangerous situations, isn't it your responsibility to protect her from harm? We can't hold her hand while she crosses every street, nor can we choose which streets she will cross, but we can provide her with certain safety nets. One of those nets is a vaccine that may prevent permanent repercussions from temporary lapses in judgment.
Michele Bachmann will say anything to make herself look like the better choice for the Republican nod. She will do anything to make her opponents look like horrible men who would take parenting rights out of parents' hands. Generally, she makes herself look like a fool, but this time she has done something even worse. She has misled parents into fearing something that could help their daughters, and even save their lives.
Make your own decisions, but whatever you do, consider all of the outside influences that have to do with this particular decision. HPV vaccinations can save your daughter's life. When you are making the decision of whether to have her vaccinated, remember that your moral code has very little to do with it.
Michele Bachmann doesn't like this because it takes away from the rights of the parents to choose. (Funny how she's all about "choice" on this particular issue, and not so much on others.) She went on to claim that one parent told her the vaccine was dangerous and caused mental retardation in her child. This has been hotly contested by medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. Parents in Texas can easily opt out of the requirement, but that's not really the point. The point is, why would any parent decide against protecting their daughter from a virus that has been shown to cause cervical cancer?
Here are three reasons why your daughter is not safe, no matter how you've raised her.
Someday, she will have sex.
I know, it is really difficult for a mom (and especially a dad) to admit. But it is true. If your daughter is a normal, healthy kid who will grow into a normal healthy adult-sex is probably inevitable. Whether it happens in the back seat of a Buick in high school or on silk sheets on her wedding night doesn't matter. What does matter is that she will be having sex with someone else. Your daughter may be chaste and innocent, but is her partner? Has her partner exercised due diligence, or did her partner have a past that she knows nothing about?
The "Unthinkable" could happen to her.
According to a study conducted by the National Organization for Women, more than 600 women are raped or sexually assaulted in the United States every day. Surviving a sexual assault is not an easy thing. If the aftereffects of that sexual assault are revisited years later because the perpetrator of the crime passed on a virus that causes her to contract cervical cancer, survival may not even be possible.
She might make her own mistakes.
Your daughter is cute and innocent right now. She might be playing with her dolls, or her brother's dump truck. Either way, the thought that she might someday fall into the company of the wrong kind of kids, experiment with drugs, alcohol and sex, or make any decision in her life that might not be in accordance with your morals or the way you are raising her-well, it's just not possible. Not right now.
But you have no idea what choices she might make in the long run. If she does ultimately fall into dangerous situations, isn't it your responsibility to protect her from harm? We can't hold her hand while she crosses every street, nor can we choose which streets she will cross, but we can provide her with certain safety nets. One of those nets is a vaccine that may prevent permanent repercussions from temporary lapses in judgment.
Michele Bachmann will say anything to make herself look like the better choice for the Republican nod. She will do anything to make her opponents look like horrible men who would take parenting rights out of parents' hands. Generally, she makes herself look like a fool, but this time she has done something even worse. She has misled parents into fearing something that could help their daughters, and even save their lives.
Make your own decisions, but whatever you do, consider all of the outside influences that have to do with this particular decision. HPV vaccinations can save your daughter's life. When you are making the decision of whether to have her vaccinated, remember that your moral code has very little to do with it.
(ABC News)
0 comments:
Post a Comment