South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has vetoed a bill that would have provided the HPV vaccine free to the state’s seventh-graders after opponents said the measure would sexualize girls at a young age.
South Carolina lawmakers had passed the bill by large bipartisan majorities in the state House and Senate. Moreover, Haley had co-sponsored a bill mandating the vaccine when she was a legislator in 2007. Haley later killed her 2007 bill because it didn’t offer parents an opt-out. Getting the vaccine was optional under the bill Haley vetoed on Tuesday.
Haley said she opposed the new bill because it was “a precursor to another taxpayer-funded healthcare mandate.”
The vaccine protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. HPV causes venereal warts and can lead to cervical and other types of cancer. Health officials say the vaccine should be given to patients before they become sexually active.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in 2007 mandating the HPV vaccine for young girls in Texas. The Legislature later passed a measure overturning that order. Critics noted that Perry issued his executive order after a former top aide became a lobbyist for the vaccine maker. Religious-right groups were strongly opposed to the order.
During the Republican presidential nominating contest last fall, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota absurdly claimed that the HPV vaccine might cause mental retardation.
A “precursor?” Seriously, Nikki, you expect us to believe you’re shaking in your boots about a “precursor?”
Wouldn’t it be nice if Nikki just told the truth, for once, and said, “This veto is me pandering to the religious right who, hopefully, will vote me back in office so I can live four more years on the public dime.”
Of course, the SC legislature can override the veto as they did the Wildfire Equipment Bill that Nikki also vetoed.
Let’s see, though, shiny new tractor (vroomm!) or women’s health care? New tractor or health care? What to do?
You people don’t understand. America has all sorts of problems, but its biggest problem is a “sin problem.”
We have killed 50,000,000 babies since Roe vs. Wade. On top of that, we are on the verge of official nationwide approval of sodomy, the sin that caused fire and brimstone to rain down on the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy them utterly and completely. Our other national sins are on a list that runs a hundred miles long.
The thing you liberals at TFN don’t understand is that we have a wrathful God that once destroyed every human and animal on the entire Earth except two of its kind. He’s really sensitive and likely to go off like nitroglycerine at the slightest rattle. If you were to read all of the horrifying things he has done to people in the Bible, like we have, you people would be scared to death of him—just like we are. One of the things that upsets him the most above all other sins is sexual sin.
Now look. If you examine America’s overall sin record, we have got to be on the edge of a tipping point. There is just no doubt about it. This is why defeating the HPV bill is so important. We believe that getting the HPV shot will cause at least some girls to say,” Hey, I’d like to get me some free penis because I had the shot and won’t get cancer now if I do it.” You see fear of pregnancy, venereal disease, and getting cancer are what keeps kids from having sex. Right? Well, here is where truth lies. If we are poised perilously at the sin tipping point, just one girl taking the shot for a free penis ride might tip us over the edge and make God go berserko on all of us. Why, we might wake up one morming and find the whole Chineses Army standing in our backyards—and all because of some little tart that got a shot so she could get laid. My IQ is 189.
Charles,
HPV can cause cancer in women of all ages, but the vaccine is only approved for young women at this point. It isn’t about removing fear of cancer so girls can have sex (as you say, there are plenty of other reasons not to have unprotected sex), it’s about a form of cancer that we finally know how to stop.
Also, I don’t believe in your god, or any god that would go berserko on all of us because of one more couple having sex. That doesn’t sound very loving to me.
Makato, I agree with your comment about God but just want to clarify that the HPV vaccine is also now available for boys as well.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/who/teens/vaccines/hpv.html
Very true – I really wish I was young enough (as a guy) to get the vaccine, but I’m out of the approved age range right now. I was mostly responding to the tone of “girl get shot for cancer free sex” tone I felt from the earlier comment.
I hate cancer, so anything we can do to fight it is good in my book.
Dan at TFN. Can you do something to get that gravatar symbol from attaching to my posts? I really hate it when I do something at another website or blog—then some sensory thing goes out across cyberspace and says, “Hey, I recognize you!!! Let’s do this!!! Let’s show your personal profile information on this other blog or website to a bunch of strangers out in Texas!!! Wouldn’t that be really cool!!!’
No, it most certainly would not be really cool. Quit it!!!!!!!!! Who gives you that right to make that decision automatically on my behalf without asking me?
Charles,
Not sure where that comes from, but we’ll check into it and see if we can change it.
Thanks Dan. If you click on the gravitar symbol, it offers the option to “hide your profile,” which I did. However, that still does not explain how this TFN blog got linked up access to my profile at the other place. The Big G seems to think it has inalienable rights to keep sitting there.
Charles,
The sideways “G” Gravatar is the default setting we chose for folks who haven’t set their own. A few folks have set their own, but most commenters on this blog have the default setting we chose. It’s also a common default used on other blogs, which is probably why you’re seeing it elsewhere as well. You can set your own Gravatar on this blog by clicking on the default image next to your name. Hope this helps.
Charles in your well done sarcastic rant you neglected just one bullet point; Jesus is coming back soon and boy is he pissed. That’s my personal favorite, as in “these liberal secular humanists America haters have so confounded me with their logic and reason I have nothing left in my arsenal to attack them with but the imminent return of Jesus.”
And I do take issue with whoever coined the phrase “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” I believe it’s the sincerest form of ridicule.
Makato, I agree with your comment about God but just want to clarify that the HPV vaccine is also now available for boys as well.