I predict a 180 in 3....2....
For a while now, scientists have known that human pappilomavirus, or HPV, is linked to cervical cancer. Cervical cancer kills approximately 390 Canadian women each year, and affects thousands more. The same virus also causes genital warts, a sexually transmitted infection. In fact, pretty much the only way to contract HPV is through sexual contact. And since "good girls" wouldn't ever dare to engage in sexual contact with anyone other than their husband, on their wedding night, for the purpose of creating a baby...well, only "bad girls" die of cervical cancer. At least, that is what the religious right would have us believe, and that is why they have faught tooth and nail to have a vaccine for HPV not be administered to the people who need it most: young women who are not yet engaged in sexual activity. They believe that such a vaccine takes the percieved risks out of intercourse, thus undermining their policy of encouraging abstinence-only education in schools.
However, a recent study has linked HPV to another form of cancer. One that affects both men and woman almost equally: throat cancer.
Since the religious right is hypocritical about almost everything else it preaches, I am willing to bet that a lot of the stodgy old white males in its ranks have at one time or another engaged in the type of activity that allows one to contract HPV orally. I am also willing to bet that now that those stodgy old white males are at risk of developing cancer, that there will be a minor attitude shift and the development of a vaccine that can be given to men. Oh, women will probably have to continue to die of an entirely preventable disease, but the religious right will be safe. And when you're a stodgy old white male, isn't that what matters most?
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