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July 17, 2006
A bright, bold
sweater hangs from the thrift store rack. Beautiful on the hanger, a
telltale loose strand of yarn hangs from the hem just under the last
bottom bright gold button. At $5.00, the bargain tempts the unwary.
But for those
who take time to look, inspecting the spot where the yarn dangles, a
trail of empty loops signals a sweater coming undone. One stitch at a
time, six inches of hem have disappeared. Scissors have snipped the
evidence. But a slow tug pulls another inch of knitted loops off the
hem.
Like sweaters,
stories can unravel. Consider the recent development of a vaccine for
the human papillomavirus virus.
Loudly heralded
by many liberal groups such as Planned Parenthood and the National
Organization for Women, if you believe the pretty story they are
knitting with haste, you might believe they have been on the
frontlines of the battle to protect women from cervical cancer.
But the facts
tell a different story. The facts speak to a long campaign of deceit
promoted by pro-sex groups over the past ten years to pretend that
there was no disease to cure that a little latex couldn’t prevent.
Looking carefully at the edges where truth has been snipped, it is
possible to tug at a loose fact and find a story just one second of
truth away from unraveling.
Loose Thread No.
One
The first word I
heard of human papillomavirus (HPV) six years ago was at a meeting of
abstinence educators. HPV was one of over twenty five sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs) that abstinence educators were teaching in
their medically accurate sex education classes.
Where was
Planned Parenthood back then? They were constructing a vicious and
medically inaccurate campaign aimed at destruction of abstinence
education. What was Planned Parenthood saying about human
papillomavirus (HPV) back then? They called the mention of HPV a
scare tactic of radical right-wing fanatics.
According to
Planned Parenthood and NOW, HPV was just one of many sexual kill-joys
that conservatives used to deprive adolescents of their “right” to
express their “natural” sexual urges with wholesome activities such as
oral sex with dental dams and outercourse. Once infected and
threatened with possible cervical cancer, the “cure” of choice
promoted by these groups was a pap smear…a belated opportunity to tell
a woman she has cancer caused by a politically conservative virus.
Loose Thread No.
Two
Where was The
National Organization for Women (NOW) back then when cervical cancer
was killing more women annually than HIV? Linking arms with Planned
Parenthood for more medically inaccurate sound-bites, NOW decried the
fear-based claims of conservative religious fanatics. Cervical
cancer killing women? If so, NOW took no steps to alert women to the
connection between HPV and cervical cancer. Worse still, NOW put duct
tape on the lips of anyone bold enough to mention HPV.
As recently as
2004, at their conference held in Las Vegas, NOW leadership rejected
an opportunity to educate women about HPV. Asked to support a
resolution for Cervical Cancer Education, NOW leadership
quickly pulled the resolution off the table and into the back room,
where “privately,” the NOW Board promptly banished this call for an
educational effort to tell women about HPV and its link to cervical
cancer.
Loose Thread No.
Three
The first time I
heard condoms do not prevent infection from HPV was six years ago, a
medically accurate fact taught by an abstinence educator. The second,
third, fourth, and fifth times I heard the medically accurate truths
about condoms and their failure to provide anything at all like “safe
sex” were at medical conferences hosted by agencies supporting
abstinence education as a reasonable and necessary health response to
the STD epidemic.
As far back as
2001, a comprehensive, medically accurate review of all research on
condoms published by the National Institute of Health/Centers for
Disease Control (NIH/CDC) revealed the paucity of evidence supporting
condoms as “protection” against the many STDs of this epidemic. The
information in this report explains why one in five people today over
the age of twelve is now infected with genital herpes. It also
explains why condoms do not prevent infections by HPV leading to
cervical cancer.
Where were
Planned Parenthood and NOW back then? Putting more duct tape on their
lips. Wagging their fingers at the terrible, awful, big, bad
conservatives who insisted on relating these medically accurate facts
to the need for abstinence sex education programs. Waiting for a cure
for a disease they didn’t want to discuss.
And now…when
there is a vaccine to prevent the disease that “doesn’t
exist”…suddenly members of Planned Parenthood and NOW are willing to
talk about HPV…the “conservative virus” that didn’t really matter…back
then.
We’re all
grateful for a vaccine that will prevent cervical cancer. But some of
us have been fighting the cause of women’s health and prevention of
cervical cancer for the past ten years. Others, sadly, have been
carrying briefcases filled with duct tape.
Copyright © 2006 Jane Jimenez
July 11, 2005 Medically
Accurate Cowards
April 2, 2004
Sex Education: Spinning the Truth
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for past editorials.
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